LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. Copyright No. 

Shelf.___w-ri.^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



CREEDS 



AND 



RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 



AS THEY APPEAR TO 



A PLAIN BUSINESS MAN 



BY / 

JOHN S. HAWLEY 



NEW YORK 

WILBUR B. KETCHAM 

7 AND 9 West Eighteenth Street 



^5599 



Library of Congress 

Two Copies Received 
NOV 141900 

Copyrigrit (,>ntry 

SECOND COPY 

Dei ;vr-rc>d to 

ORDER DIVISION 

NOV 19 1900 



No 






Copyright, 1900, 
By WILBUR B. KETCHAM 



To my old Friend, School-fellow, and Townsman, 
Dr. James T. Sweetman, of Chariton, Saratoga 
County, N. Y., this book is dedicated, as an expres- 
sion of my appreciation of his invaluable work in 
aid of the Charlton Industrial Farm School. 

JOHN S. HAWLEY. 

YoNKBRS, N. Y., September i, 190a 



CONTENTS. 



PAGK 

Introduction 7 

What do Christians think of One Another ii 

The Apostle*s Creed 14 

Brahmanism and Buddhism 21 

Confucianism 23 

Mohammedanism 26 

Hebraism 31 

Christianity 35 

»^Roman Catholicism , 50 

"The Greek Church 71 

vLrUtheranism 72 

" Episcopalianism 80 

* Presbyterianism no 

' Methodism 116 

' The Baptist Faith 117 

^ Congregationalism 119 

' Unitarianism 119 

* Universalism 1 23 

Christian Science and Mental Science 127 

. Agnosticism 135 

* Conclusion and Summary 138 

Appendix i6i 



** Work and despair not ; bring thy mite, 
Nor care how small it be ; 
God is with all that love the right, 
The truthful and the free. 

** No act falls fruitless ; none can tell 
How vast its power may be ; 
Nor what results enfolded dwell 
Within it silently." 



INTRODUCTION. 

My friends and acquaintances will be surprised 
indeed, to learn that I have attempted to write a 
book, but not more so than the writer. I have 
much to ask of their indulgence for the lack of 
finish or completeness in both sentences and chap- 
ters, and no one will be better aware of the crude- 
ness of this little volume than myself. 

The subjects under consideration have usually 
been treated by theological scholars, who brought 
to their work exhaustive study and investigation.* 
This work will not for a moment compare with 
theirs, except that it has the merit of brevity. 

It is written, however, by one who is in a per- 
fectly independent position, not influenced by 
fear or favor, unhampered by church tenets or 
ecclesiastical inventions. It purposes merely to 
give in as few words as possible a few points of 
general information on Religious Beliefs to per- 
sons who will not be likely to take the time to 

* Their great mistake, however, is that they study only from 
one point of view — like a democrat who never examines a re- 
pul^lican newspaper and vice versa — looking for politics rather 
than facts. 

7 



8 INTRODUCTION, 

study such subjects, except in a superficial man- 
ner. I have only attempted to write as one busi- 
ness man would speak to another, calling things 
by their right names and wasting no time in 
words. 

Some one (perhaps more) of my friends will be 
likely to anxiously ask, ^' Does John Hawley 
believe in the Bible ? '* 

I will answer, **Yes, I believe in everything 
good in the Bible/* 

" Ah ! But do you not believe that it is the in- 
spired word of God, written by men who were 
divinely and specially inspired, and therefore 
writers only of explicit truth ? *' 

I will answer frankly, " No ; writers were no 
more inspired two or three thousand years age 
than they are to-day, or than they will be in the 
future. How absurd it would be for us to insist 
that our descendants — two or three thousand 
years hence — should believe exactly as we do, re- 
gardless of developments that will then have be- 
come history ! For aught we know, men of this 
opening century may be the authors of what will 
be embodied in the Bible of two thousand years 
hence. 

But what a grand thing it is that we have the 
Bible with its history of the development of re- 
ligion, which commenced when man began to 
think ! 

And has enlightened religion improved ? Com- 



INTRODUCTION, 9 

pare the sacrifice laws of the ancients, the cruel- 
ties of Moses and Joshua, with the humanities of 
to-day and realize that it is progressive religious 
thought that has brought about the improve- 
ment. 

If we judge the future by the past, is it not 
probable that higher beliefs and higher morality 
will develop a grander civilization ? And ought 
we to claim the right to make laws or rules for 
controlling the spiritual thought of the people of 
those coming days ? Clearly it is most just and 
proper for the people of all ages to adapt their 
beliefs to the lights they have. 

Theologians may perhaps inquire what right I 
have to discuss their specialty ? I reply that they 
often criticise the methods and doings of business 
men (often with propriety), and for a plain busi- 
ness man to express his opinions of Creeds and 
Beliefs seems only a matter of reciprocity. 

It seems to me that preachers and teachers of 
dogmatic religion, begin with two serious mistakes, 
viz. : First, they force a belief upon themselves ; 
though it is often lacking in that absolute essen- 
tial, perfect sincerity. Second, they endeavor to 
force these same beliefs upon others, and thereby 
would stop all effort of earnest men, who are en- 
deavoring to ascertain truth. 

As for the first, I think it wrong to compel our- 
selves to believe anything. As for the second, I 
claim the inalienable right to investigate as I 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

please, to choose my own teachers, and to decide 
for myself. I cannot honestly do otherwise. I 
intend to say what I think, and I believe that he 
who sows a seed, from which springs even the 
smallest advance in liberal Christian Faith, is a 
doer of good. 

Theology in effect is often simply a system for 
the retarding of progressive religious thought. It 
has always placed a higher value upon its own 
doctrines and theories than upon facts. 

Many of these ''doctrines" are without foun- 
dations. Like houses built upon the unstable 
sand, they are propped up by superstition, tradi- 
tion, and legend, but they must inevitably fall 
before science, intelligence, and reason. And the 
sooner they do, the better. Real and enduring 
theology must be founded upon the rock of truth ! 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 



WHAT DO CHRISTIANS THINK OF ONE 
ANOTHER? 

If you ask a dozen members of various Christian 
churches what the beliefs are of those that belong 
to churches other than their own, it is surprising 
to note the answers you receive. 

In a general way they will tell you that the 

Catholic believes in the power of the priest or 

bishop to save or to condemn him, that he worships 

the virgin Mary and innumerable saints, and that 

he believes that when the priest has forgiven his 

sins he starts off with a clean record, no matter 

what may have been his former life. They will 

probably agree that the Baptist believes that 

immersion is the essential form of baptism. The 

Episcopalian will be considered a believer in 

forms and ceremonies. They will gravely tell you 

that the Unitarian does not believe in Jesus Christ, 

and are not quite sure whether the Universalists 

burn a Bible every Sunday in their churches or 

II 



12 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

not, but they have heard so. The Presbyterians 
are supposed to be followers of John Calvin, while 
the Lutherans are Catholics who do not acknowl- 
edge the Pope. 

Not only are members of churches uninformed 
as to the beliefs of their sister churches, but many 
of them are not clear as to the beliefs of their own 
denominations. Ask an Episcopalian, for example, 
if he believes in foreordination, and he will usually 
say, ** no *' ; suggest to him that such a doctrine is to 
be found in his prayer-book, and he will say, 
" Oh ! no/* and perhaps rather indignantly ask 
you *^ where it is to be found?** Quote to him 
No. 17 of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and 
he will be surprised, and admit he never read it 
before. Ask him if he believes his minister is 
empowered to say when his sins are forgiven, and 
he will reply ^^ Certainly not/* Yet he says Amen 
to this sentiment every time he attends church. 

(From the " Prayer for the Absolution or 
Remission of sins.**) 

" He hath given power and commandment 
to His Ministers to declare and pronounce to 
His people, being penitent^ the absolution and 
remission of their sins.** 

In like manner the Presbyterian knows but little 
of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the 
Methodist has read only a part of his Church 
Discipline. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 3 

ARTICLE XVII. — OF PREDESTINATION AND 
ELECTION. 

" Predestination to Life is the everlasting pur- 
" pose of God, whereby (before the foundations 
" of the world were laid) He hath constantly 
" decreed by His counsel secret to us, to deliver 
" from curse and damnation those whom He hath 
'^ chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring 
*' them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as 
" vessels made to honour/* 



THE APOSTLES' CREED. 

Perhaps no better beginning of this Chapter can 
be made than by quoting the two following letters, 
which will explain themselves. 

New Yo^BMi^June 13, 1899. 
To the Editor of Th^ Outlook. 

In your number of June 3d, is an editorial which I read with 
surprise and not a little regret. It is entitled, " Unity in Wor- 
ship," and is in the main a plea for the adoption by Protestant 
Churches generally, of a liturgy similar to that of the Episcopal 
Church. It also especially advocates the (so-called) Apostles, 
Creed as a basis of Church Unity, though it scores the Nicene 
Creed as *' not very intelligible philosophy." 

Of the Apostle's Creed, the Article says it ** was not constructed 
at all, but grew." 

It also says the Apostle's Creed "is fact." 

It is beyond my understanding how such a liberal and progres- 
sive teacher as The Outlook can voice these sentiments. 

My father was a strict Presbyterian and I was bred in that 
faith. 

Later in life, for many years, I attended the Episcopal Church. 
I used to read the Creed mechanically (the usual way), and 
thought little about it. So, for the time, all went well, for my 
mentality quietly rested in the supposition that what I had been 
taught must be correct. 

But after a time I began to think of this Creed and to wonder 
upon what authority it was based. 

From that time I could read only the first few Unes of the 
Creed, for I could not conscientiously say I believed most of it. 

Why is it called the Apostles' Creed, when there is absolutely 
14 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 5 

no evidence that the Apostles ever used or ever even heard of it ? 

How misleading is this ! 

Where is the authority for saying Jesus was the only Son of 
God when he repeatedly called his Apostles his brethren ? When 
or where did he call himself God's only Son ? 

Why should such emphasis be given to " Conceived of the 
Holy Ghost ? " " Born of the Virgin Mary ? " Of how much 
significance are these details ? 

Yet they seem by the Creed to be of more importance than the 
teachings of our Great Master ! 

" Suffered under Pontius Pilate." Would it not be nearer the 
fact to say, " Suffered under the Theology of his time ? " For 
Pilate wished to save His life, but the Chief Priests sought to 
kill Him. 

" He descended into Hell." Where is Hell ? 

" He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of 
God." 

Where is Pleaven ? Does God live in a certain place and 
does He sit upon a throne as the King of an earthly nation sits 
upon his throne .'* 

That is the teaching of the Creed, but I cannot find it in the 
teachings of Jesus. 

" I believe in the Holy Ghost." Is this meant to refer to the 
inspiration of a Holy Spirit that speaks to us all ? Why should 
this inward voice — this Comforter — be referred to as a person ? 

" The Communion of Saints " seems to me to be only mystify- 
ing. Who are the Saints ? How do they commune ? How is 
it with those other than Saints } Do they also " commune ? " 

" The resurrection of the body ! " Possibly we shall be told 
that this means the resurrection of the Spiritual body. But is it 
not plainly apparent that it was intended to refer to the physical 
body ? Besides, if the Spirit does not die, how could it be res- 
urrected ? 

To me the so-called Apostles' Creed is an indorsement of the 
beliefs that were held by Christians through the dark ages. All 
honor to them for their beliefs under the lights they had ! But 
it was after all a two-story and basement theology. They be- 
lieved this Earth to be the center of the universe, the main floor 



l6 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

of the structure. God lived in Heaven, which embraced the up- 
per story, while Hell was in the basement ! The good at death 
went to the upper story, while the wicked were sent to the base- 
ment to suffer forever, with no pitying hand held toward them 
and no voice to instruct or lead them ! 

To believe all this in ancient days was natural ; to truly believe 
it to-day is impossible ! 

What shall be said of those who each week solemnly say they 
believe the Creed, and then endeavor to explain it away ? 

There is no satisfaction and absolutely no value in a half-be- 
lieved Creed. 

The Master never uttered more remarkable words than when 
he said, '* God is Spirit : and they who worship him, must wor- 
ship him in spirit and in truth." 

The chief excuse for clinging to this Creed seems to be its 
antiquity. How^ old is it ? I am told by the most able student 
I know, that it cannot be traced to a time prior to the fifth 
century. The writer can remember men who were bom 140 
years ago, one-tenth as far back as the age of the Apostles' 
Creed, fourteen hundred years ! Geologists go back more than 
fourteen hundred millions of years and find no trace of a be- 
ginning ! 

Is the antiquity of theories that were believed fourteen hundred 
years ago so great, as to make it a theological necessity that 
they should still be indorsed by people who live in the light of 
modern science ? 

Is it inconsistent with true reverence for the highest form of 
religion, that we believe in the discoveries of Copernicus and 
Newton } 

Are we given our powers of reason and understanding for no 
purpose so far as religious belief is effected ? 

In science, in business, in all the practical affairs of life, we 
correct errors as we find them. Is it not of far greater importance 
that errors in our highest beliefs should be corrected, whenever 
and wherever they are demonstrated to be such ? 

Reasoning men can only accept the i^postles' Creed by putting 
aside their mentality, and this most of them are loth to do, and 
many will not do. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. Ij 

In a certain church in New York City, there is read each Sun- 
day the following Creed : 

" We believe in the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of 
man, the spiritual leadership of Jesus Christ, and the immortality 
of the Soul. 

" We believe that goodness is the eternal law of God and will 
finally overcome all evil, and that only as we accept and practise 
this law, can we find peace in this World or in the World to 
come." 

Goodness I How grand is the word when we think of it 1 
Place in one scale all the religious doctrines and dogmas that 
were ever invented, and in the opposite scale a few grains of 
Goodness, and compare their weight ! 

Why cannot Christian Unity be accomplished upon the basis 
of a statement of belief like the above ? To me it seems impos- 
sible that it can ever come when it involves a belief or professed 
belief in the Apostles' Creed. 

John S. Hawley, 

Yonkers, N. Y. 

The manuscript was returned on June 30th 
with the following letter from the editor, Dr. 
Abbott, 

"THE OUTLOOK," 

287 Fourth Avenue, 

New York. 

June 30, 1899. 

My Dear Sir: — 

We return this manuscript to you, which we are not able to 
use. It asks many questions which I think, from my point of 
view, might be answered, but the answering of them would in- 
volve repeating again what we are constantly repeating in The 
Outlook, the reasons for our faith in the essential facts of his- 
torical Christianity. It is possible that those facts are not stated 
in this creed in their best proportion, but they state what is the 
2 



l8 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

general belief of Christians, and state that belief in a form 
with which the great majority of Christians are familiar, and 
state it freed from mataphysical subtleties and refinements. This 
is the ground on which it seems to me useful to retain that creed 
as an expression of the historic faith of the Christian Church, al- 
though in some respects in forms which the Church of to-day 
would not use, if it were creating a new statement of its present 
belief. 

Yours sincerely, 

Lyman Abbott. 
(W.) 

Mr. John S. Hawley. 

When we consider the position which Dr. 
Abbott holds in the Christian world, through his 
fine talents, his opportunities, his great experience, 
and his acknowledged ability, it is easy to under- 
stand that his views and expressions deservedly 
carry unusual weight. It is therefore to be re- 
gretted that his response was not more complete. 

Whatever may be said of the first of these let- 
ters, it is certain that Dr. Abbott's reply is not re- 
markable for its clearness or directness. On the 
contrary, it is distinctly evasive. It says the 
questions asked " might be answered, but the 
answering of them would involve repeating again 
what we are constantly repeating in The OUT- 
LOOK." 

Though the writer has read The Outlook and 
its predecessor, the ^' Christian Union," for many 
years, he has no recollection of having seen the 
answers referred to. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I9 

Concerning the Apostles* Creed, Dr. Abbott 
twice expresses disapproval ; i. e., he says : ** It is 
possible those facts are not stated in this creed in 
their best proportion.*' It might be interesting to 
know what changes he would make to state them 
in their ** best proportion/' whatever may be the 
intended meaning of that phrase. 

Again he says of this creed that it is '* in some 
respects in forms which the Church of to-day 
would not use, if it were creating a new statement 
of its present belief." 

Though both of these quotations are obscure 
and incomplete, they seem to show that Dr. Ab- 
bott, while desiring to indorse the creed, is not 
entirely satisfied with it. 

Why is this ? Why is it that thousands of 
ministers and millions of religious people who use 
this creed do not give it their entire approval ? 
There is but one answer and that is : They do not 
sincerely believe it ! 

It is a hopeful sign in the march of progressive 
thought when religious teachers will make such 
admissions as those referred to. 

The historical value of the Apostles* Creed is 
very properly spoken of, for that appears to be its 
chief virtue. In most of its averments it has be- 
come obsolete. It seems to me that when a 
declaration of belief is found to be defective and 
incorrect, it has survived its real purpose and 
ought to be replaced. 



20 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, 



There was a time when men were persecuted 
for expressing the smallest doubt as to the entire 
literal correctness of this creed. They were infi- 
dels, and it became the duty of the church to visit 
God's wrath upon them. To-day they are only 
accused of heresy, now scarcly recognized as being 
a punishable offense, except by excommunication, 
which is not often resorted to, and which has also 
become quite harmless. 

To the consistent Catholic all Protestants are 
heretics ; to the orthodox Protestant all who do 
not believe in the multitudinous doctrines of some 
of the various denominations, are heretics. Be- 
tween the two the heretics have increased until 
their numbers alone make them quite respectable, 
aside from the fact that they include thousands 
of the most eminent scholars, the highest moral- 
ists, and the best thinkers of the Christian world. 



BELIEFS OF THE MOST PROMINENT 
RELIGIONS OF TO-DAY. 

BRAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM. 

The people of the East claim that their religious 
history extends back to a period far more remote 
than that claimed by either Christians or Jews. 
The Chinese have dates extending back more than 
twenty thousand years, the Hindoo also gives 
dates of great antiquity, but they are so obscured 
in tradition and legend, myth and doubt, as not 
to be reliable. 

The Brahman Religion is of great antiquity. 
Its oldest books are known as the Vedas. The 
word, Veda, means " a breath from the Divine/* 
To this day Brahmans believe that this Divine 
breath inspired the writers of their Vedas, and 
that therefore they are and always must be abso- 
lutely infallible. 

They believe in innumerable gods, gods for 
everything in nature, as the god of the sky, god 
of the wind, god of the sun, god of fire, of the 
fields, of the trees and the flowers, etc., etc. God- 
desses are also numerous, as the goddess of the 

dawn, etc., etc. 

21 



22 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

All the moral virtues are taught in the Vedas. 
Vice, dishonesty, untruthfulness, and all immor- 
ality are forbidden and condemned and are pun- 
ished by the gods. 

Buddha came into the Hindoo world many cen- 
turies after Brahma. He was a reformer, and his 
teachings were largely against what might have 
been called the ecclesiasticism of his day and sur- 
roundings. For a time Buddhism was the chief 
religion of India — but later Brahmanism regained 
the ascendency, though its old caste restrictions 
and priestly rule were modified by the influence 
of Buddhism. 

The Hindoos believe not only in many gods, 
but also in many devils, who bring into the world 
all diseases, sins, and evils that afflict humanity. 

They have great reverence for certain animals, 
plants, and stones, and have numerous sacred 
places to which they make pilgrimages on certain 
occasions by thousands. 

This people may fairly be said to be afflicted 
with excessive religion. To them their religious 
belief is far more important than knowledge, or 
even truth. By nature they are an intelligent 
race. Had their diligence in the pursuit of knowl- 
edge and truth been equal to the persistence with 
which they have clung to their mythical beliefs, 
who can say but that to-day they might have been 
among the foremost of the earth's nations ! 

Great efforts have been made and are being 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 23 

made to convert the Brahmans to Christianity, but 
with comparatively small results. They cling to 
their idols, to their dogmas and doctrines ! Can 
they consistently be blamed for this by Christians 
who with equal persistency cling to man-made 
dogmas and doctrines which are generally un- 
scriptural, not provable, sometimes absolutely 
unreasonable, and often impossible ? 

CONFUCIANISM, THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE. 

Confucius was born about 550 years before the 
Christian era, in the Lu country of China. He 
was studious in his boyhood and a scholar while 
he was still a youth. At an early age he became, 
like his father, an officer of the government and 
was soon advanced to one of the highest positions 
in his state, distinguishing himself for great abil- 
ity. 

Not satisfied with this, he resigned his office, 
and for thirteen years devoted himself to study 
and observation, traveling over various parts of 
the Kingdom. He returned to Lu, and spent the 
remainder of his life in study, teaching, and revis- 
ing and improving the ** Kings,'' or Sacred Books 
of China. 

So far as numbers are concerned, Confucius has 
had an influence over a greater number of human 
beings than any man of whom we have any ac- 
count, and at the present time his religious and 



24 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

moral teachings are embraced by probably thirty 
per cent, of the world's inhabitants. 

Prior to the time of Confucius, the Chinese be- 
lieved in one personal God whom they called 
Shang-te. He was believed to be the everlasting 
ruler of Heaven and Earth, controlling nations 
and individuals. By his command the good were 
rewarded and the wicked were punished. Al- 
though this deity is still worshipped by the 
Chinese, and their emperor in the name of the 
true believers makes solemn sacrifices to him, he 
is not considered essentially as a person, but rather 
as a condition or Heaven. The writings of Con- 
fucius do not embrace a belief in a personal 
God. 

The Chinese have great regard for the spirits of 
the departed, especially the spirits of their ances- 
tors, who, they believe, are continually watching 
over those they left behind, giving them good or 
evil fortune. They consult these spirits in all 
their affairs. Even in matters of State, confer- 
ences are supposed to be held with the spirits 
of deceased emperors, lawgivers, and wise men, 
above all with the spirit of Confucius. 

Filial and brotherly love are distinguishing char- 
acteristics of the Chinese, and both these virtues 
are inculcated through their religious teaching. 

Chinese women occupy a subordinate and even 
a degraded position. To obey seems to be theirs 
only, a women is required to obey her parents and 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 2$ 

the parents of her husband, her husband, and, if 
she is a widow, she must obey her eldest son. 

Education is greatly respected and revered in 
China, and only from the educated can officials be 
chosen. 

The following from the teachings of Confucius 
may well be studied and copied by those who lay 
claim to the highest civilization. ** The superior 
man strives after nine things : 

1st. In seeing — to see clearly. 

2d. In hearing — to hear distinctly. 

3d. In expression — to be benign. 

4th. In his demeanor — to be decorous. 

5th. In speaking — to be sincere. 

6th. In his duties — to be respectful. 

7th. In doubt — to inquire. 

8th. In resentment — to think of difficulties. 

9th. And when he sees an opportunity for gain 
—to think of right.'* 

Jesus gave to Christians the Golden Rule. In 
like manner Confucius gave to his followers a 
similar general rule of life as follows : ** What ye 
would not that men should do to you, do not ye 
do it to them.*' 

Though stated in different words, in substance 
they are equal. 

Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are the 
three legal religions of China. Japan has two 
great religions, Shintoism and Buddhism, to one 
of which nearly all of its people belong. To 



26 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

describe all the teachings, doctrines, dogmas and 
religious customs of the people of the East, would 
require volumes of research and study, and would 
be far beyond the scope of this little book. 

MOHAMMEDANISM. 

Another great teacher of the half-civilized people 
of our little globe, was Mahomet or Mohammed. 

This man was born at Mecca, Arabia, A. D. 
571. He was of poor parentage, though of a 
noble branch of his tribe. In youth he was of a 
serious, meditative, and religious temperament. 
Early in life he claimed to have been visited by 
the Angel Gabriel, who commanded him to preach 
and instruct the people. The Angel took him 
from his house in Mecca to Jerusalem and thence 
to Heaven, where he received his revelations from 
God himself. The more ignorant of the Moham- 
medans believe that the prophet went to Heaven 
in his physical body, while others say it was in 
spirit. 

Most of the Koran, or Bible of the Moham- 
medans, was written by men under the teaching 
of Mahomet, but much of it is from ancient tradi- 
tions of the Arabs and from the Bible. 

The Koran contains 114 Suras, or Chapters. 
They were written by various men and at different 
times and contain much that is contradictory and 
inconsistent, but these contradictions and incon- 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 2/ 

sistencies are deftly harmonized by Mohammedan 
theologians, who teach that every word of the 
Koran is divinely inspired. 

" There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed 
is his prophet,** is the continuous exclamation of 
the good Moslem. 

They believe in one God, the Eternal One, the 
Creator and Ruler of everything ; that he is at- 
tended by pure angels ; and that there will be a 
final resurrection of the dead. 

They believe in a hell to which the wicked will 
be condemned, while the good will be rewarded 
in paradise. 

Jesus is recognized in the Koran as divine, but 
not as a deity ; not as the Son of God. 

The Koran commands Mohammedans to pray. 
One of their prayers corresponds with the Lord's 
Prayer. It is as follows : 

" In the name of the Most Merciful God. 
Praise be to God, the Lord of all creatures, the 
most merciful, the King of the day of judgment. 
Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg as- 
sistance. Direct us in the right way, in the way 
of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, not of 
those against whom Thou art incensed, nor of 
those who go astray.** 

All Mohammedans believe in God's absolute 
foreknowledge and predestination. 

Feasts, fasts, and pilgrimages innumerable, are 
among their religious duties. In these feasts, 



28 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

animals are sacrificed as in the days of Mosaic 
law. Camels, sheep, and goats are used for this 
purpose. 

There are many different sects among the Mo- 
hammedans, who argue and dispute one with an- 
other on minor points of belief. Some of the 
more rude tribes practise Devil worship. They 
regard diseases as manifestations of an evil spirit 
having control of the sick. 

Brahmanism, Confucianism, and Mohammed- 
anism, here so hastily and imperfectly sketched, 
form, with Christianity, the four great religions 
of the world, and embrace probably nine-tenths 
of its inhabitants. 

We have very briefly outlined the beliefs of the 
people of the East. 

What, do Christians say of them? That they 
are merely delusions, errors, falsities, foundation- 
less inventions of man, and the believers in such 
religions are only heathen ! 

In this connection it maybe interesting to con- 
sider what may be the impressions of the more 
intelligent of these same people concerning us. 

Here is an example in the comments of Aral 
Hakuseki, a very intelligent Japanese gentleman, 
as given in the Boston Transcript (Aug. 4, 1899) 
translated from the German of Dr. L. Lonholm, 
professor in the university of Tokio. 

^^ The teaching of the West (Europe) says that 
heaven and earth and all things could not have 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 29 

come into existence of themselves, but that there 
necessarily must have been in existence a Being 
who created them. If, however, the idea that 
nothing can come into existence of itself be cor- 
rect, the question naturally arises. Who created 
God ? If, however, God came into existence of 
Himself, why could not earth and heaven have 
come into existence of themselves? 

** ^ It sounds like childish talk when the fol- 
lowers of the foreign teaching say that the break- 
ing of God*s command by Adam and Eve was 
such a great sin that they themselves could not 
expiate it, but that three thousand years afterward 
God was obliged to appear upon earth in the 
person of Jesus Christ and expiate the sin Him- 
self. Whoever gives a command, has also the 
power to forgive the breaking of that command. 
What then stood in the way of His pardoning its 
infraction, especially as the whole misdeed con- 
sisted merely in the eating of an apple ? Was it 
necessary for God to become man in connection 
with so insignificant an affair? ' 

" ' The teaching of the West also says that God 
sent a great flood upon the earth and therein were 
all mankind drowned, v/ith the exception of Noah 
and his family. But if God is the creator of all 
things and their great Prince and Father, what 
reason had He for destroying His own creation ? 
Why did He not make man in the beginning good 
and obedient to his teaching? If He did not 



30 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

have the power to do this, how came it that He 
had the power to create the world ? And if man- 
kind, on the other hand, was created so stupid as 
,not to understand the teaching of God, was this 
so great a sin on his part that God, the Creator 
and Father of all things, should have destroyed 
mankind ? ' 

** Sidotti, having described to Aral the European 
custom of crossing one's self when meeting 
another person, and having explained that the 
purpose of this custom was to protect the individ- 
ual against lightning, the devil, and other like 
things, Arai remarked : ' It is very wonderful 
that God, the Christian God, should first have 
created lightning, the devil, and similar bad 
things, and then have taught mankind how to 
protect themselves against these things. It would 
have been much simpler and surer not to have 
created lightning and the devil at all. In regard 
to the supernatural, the Christians appear to be 
upon the same low level as the common people 
herein Japan.* " 



Possibly one-tenth of the world's inhabitants is 
made up of the savages of Africa, North and 
South America, and the " Islands of the Sea.*' 

Even in the most benighted of these, there is 
implanted a belief in God and a future life, a belief 
as strong as is found among the most intelligent. 



I 



"CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 3 1 

Is not this almost universal belief as much a 
creation as is the physical body or the mind? 

HEBRAISM. 

The Jews number about ten millions of souls 
and are distributed throughout the whole inhab- 
ited globe. They reject the New Testament and 
found their beliefs upon the Old, though greatly 
modified from what was their faith in the ancient 
days, as shown, for example, in the fact that the 
sacrifices commanded in the Mosaic Law are no 
longer practised. 

A full account of the Jews would be one of the 
most interesting of histories, for they have been, 
in very important respects, the leaders of the 
world. 

To-day they are distinguished for their chari- 
ties, their devotion to their homes and families, 
and their attachment to their friends. They are 
excellent, law-abiding citizens. Not often do 
you see a Jew drunkard or beggar or burglar or 
murderer. 

They are especially talented in driving a bar- 
gain, and this accounts for much of the unreason- 
able prejudice that exists against them. At the 
same time those who condemn them most for this 
are the very ones that would imitate them in dick- 
ering, if they could ! 

Another cause of the prejudice that exists 



32 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

against the Jew is illustrated in the anecdote of 
the Irishman who had whipped a Jew. 

** Why did you do it ? " he was asked. 

**That man is a Jew," replied Pat. 

*^Well, what of it?" 

''The Jews killed Christ," was the reply. 

'' Yes, but that was more than eighteen hun- 
dred years ago.** 

'' Never mind,** said Pat, " I only heard it to- 
day.** 

Are we really much in advance of Pat ? 

But perhaps I am leaving my subject. 

The Jew has given to the world the Bible ! 
Who can say what the world would have been 
without it? Bible nations are unquestionably 
leaders in all that is progressive. Where it is 
most read and studied, there is the greatest con- 
dition of intelligence ; and wherever it is not read 
and studied ignorance prevails. In countries 
where it is unknown you will find barbarism, or 
at best a half-civilization. The best laws, the best 
liberty, the best intelligence is found in Bible- 
reading countries. 

Let me quote a few lines from Rabbi Edward 
N. Kalisch : '^ The Bible above all things is for 
human guidance, human help and assistance. Its 
lessons are the lessons of human life, and its 
heroes, therefore, are human. The presence of 
the faults and the follies of its great men is doubly 
creditable to the writers of the Scriptures. It shows 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 33 

the absolute fidelity and accuracy with which they 
chronicled events. Naught was set down in 
malice, naught glossed over, naught extenuated. 
When a sin was committed, it was not hidden or 
condoned. Often its punishment was given by 
its side. Noah is rebuked by the conduct of his 
sons. Jacob feels the humiliation of his acts, 
when, twenty years later, he meets Esau again. 
Miriam was struck with leprosy ; the great law- 
giver and leader was not permitted to cross the 
Jordan. The intrepid Nathan stood before the 
monarch who had sinned, and flung the reproach 
into his face. 

" By these very things does the Bible press 
home to us the lesson of our human and our God- 
like being. These men were heroes and leaders. 
They sinned, yes ; and by the very reason that 
they rose superior to their sins are they strong. 
The true strength lies not in never having fallen, 
but in rising after one has given way. * Though 
a righteous man falls seven times, yet will he rise 
again.' Had the heroes of the Bible been flawless, 
stainless, immaculate, perfect, they would not ap- 
peal to us as they do. That they were weak, we 
know them to be our brothers, fighting the same 
battles of lust, passion, temptation and allure- 
ment ; that they conquered their weaknesses and 
rose to the sublime heights of moral truth, aye, 
to the very summit and acme of spiritual life and 
conception, teaches us that we too have these God' 



34 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

like possibilities within us ; we too can and will 
climb the Moriah of obedience, the Sinai of a 
steadfast loyalty, the Nebo of sublime resignation, 
and by our moral strength defeat and destroy the 
weaknesses of our moral garments. 

" For this reason, too, let us be wary in stern 
judgment. The human being is compassed by 
too many limitations to be perfect. Perfection is 
only of God. Indefectibility can only be of that 
omniscient One whose power permeates the 
worlds, whose mercy is as fathomless as His wis- 
dom. Striving to be, if to an infinitesimal degree, 
like Him, in purity of thought and deed, let us, 
like Him, also remember the weakness of men, 
and be generous in thought, kindly in speech, slow 
in condemnation, but swift to approve where ap- 
proval may be had. As the best tempered metal 
is flexible, so the true story of human endeavor 
is not that of rigid and inflexible indefectibility, 
but in the recuperative power of the soul that 
saves and raises us, though we have fallen seven 
times. There can be no greater weakness than 
that which denies all weakness. It is folly for us 
to consider ourselves flawless. We know our 
weaknesses. We cannot hide them by, ostrich- 
like, hiding our heads in the sand heaps of self-in- 
terested flattery. ' There is no man who may not 
sin,* and no people ; for a people is but a number 
of men. We know our faults and sins as a peo- 
ple, our cruel coldness to our faith, our heartless 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 35 

indifference to its needs, our deafness to its calls, 
our shamefacedness in acknowledgment of it, our 
avoidance of its duties and obligations ; our self- 
ish, cruelly selfish, disregard of all that crosses our 
convenience or our pleasures. 

" There is greater crime in knowing and con- 
tinuing these faults than in the faults themselves. 
You have fallen. Raise yourselves up. The 
heroes of the Bible have shown the pathway. Be 
ye heroes, not in never having fallen, but, fallen, 
in raising yourselves up ; for the righteous man is 
not he who has never fallen, but he who has risen 
up, though fallen seven times.'' 

The charitable works of the Jews are among 
the grandest in the world. There is no limit to 
what more might be said of the Jews, but this 
little book has not the required space. Are they 
justly to be blamed to-day, because their ances- 
tors eighteen hundred years ago, put to death one 
whom they regarded as a heretic ? Not more so 
than Christians of to-day should be blamed be- 
cause in the dark ages Christian Theology, for the 
same cause, burned thousands at the stake. Crimes 
like these are things of the unenlightened past, 
thank God ! To-day, educated and intelligent 
Jews are, in every essential, the equals of educated 
and intelligent Christians ! 



CHRISTIANITY 
In a work so brief as this, it is impossible to 



36 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

give a history of Christianity that would do the 
subject justice, or be of any substantial value to 
any of our readers. There are numerous works 
on this great subject that may easily be obtained 
by all who wish to inform themselves. We shall 
say but a few words. 

The Acts tell us that the disciples of Jesus were 
first called Christians in the City of Antioch, 
where Paul and Barnabas passed a whole year 
teaching the people. But little is known of Chris- 
tian organization or work during the early centu- 
ries of the Christian era. It is believed that, at 
first, only the simplest and plainest precepts of 
Jesus were accepted or taught. Later came doc- 
trines, theories, and dogmas, such as the dogma 
of the Trinity, the doctrines of the fall of man, 
the Atonement, the Incarnation, the w^orship of 
the Virgin Mary and of the Saints, and the infal- 
libity of the Pope. Still later sprang up innumer- 
able doctrines, such as purgatory, adoption, sanc- 
tification, justification, saving faith, effectual call- 
ling, election, etc., etc. All of which are the in- 
ventions of men and rest upon foundations that 
are chiefly guess-work. 

Councils and conferences assembled, com^posed 
of the ** Fathers,** which comprised the bishops 
and priests of the dark ages. Each brought in 
his especial scheme. Many were adopted and 
more were rejected, for which last the Christian 
world cannot be too thankful. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 37 

The doctrine of the Trinity was first proclaimed 
by the Councils of Nice (A. D. 325) and at Con- 
stantinople (a. D. 381), which declared that the 
Son and Spirit are co-equal with the Father, the 
Son begotten by the Father and the Spirit pro- 
ceeding from the Father. 

At Toledo, however (a. D. 589), it was declared 
that the Holy Ghost proceeded also from the 
Son. 

The word Trinity, or its equivalent, is not found 
in the Bible, and texts that are relied upon in 
support of the dogma are susceptible of various 
meanings. 

Until the fourth century the books which com- 
pose the Bible, were known as " Scripture *' or 
^* Scriptures '' — (writings). 

Chrysostom first gave these writings the name, 
Bible. Historically speaking, the origin of the 
books comprising the Old Testament are as 
obscure as the ** Vedas *' of the Hindoos or the 
** Kings,'* or sacred books, of the Chinese. 

Moses is, of course, the chief character of the 
Old Testament. He is said to have been the 
author of the first five books ; though this is 
plainly impossible, as they contain the account of 
his death, and naturally he could not himself have 
written this. The other books of the Old Testa- 
ment are ascribed with more or less correctness to 
various authors. Inspiration is claimed for all of 
these authors. But no man can explain how an 



38 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

All Wise and All Loving Father could have 
inspired Moses to write the 31st Chapter of Num- 
bers or David to write the 109th Psalm ! 

Read these chapters^ and then endeavor to har- 
monize them with the spirit of true Religion. Any 
honest or fair man must pronounce the task 
utterly and entirely impossible ! 

Numbers, Chapter XXXI. /. 

** And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites, 
afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. 

" And Moses spake unto the people, saying, 
Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let 
them go against the Midianites, and avenge the 
Lord of Midian. 

'* Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the 
tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. 

^* So there were delivered out of the thousands 
of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thou- 
sand armed for war. 

** And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand 
of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of 
Eleazar, the priest, to the war, with the holy in- 
struments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand. 

" And they warred against the Midianites, as the 
Lord commanded Moses ; and they slew all the 
males. 

''And they slew the kings of Midian, beside 
the rest of them that were slain ; namely, Evi, and 
Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings 
of Midian : Balaam also the son of Beor they slew 
with the sword. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 39 

*' And the children of Israel took all the women 
of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took 
the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and 
all their goods. 

^' And they burnt all their cities wherein they 
dwelt, and all their goodly castles with fire. 

" And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, 
both of men and of beasts. 

" And they brought the captives, and the prey, 
and the spoil unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, 
and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, 
unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are 
by Jordan near Jericho. 

*' And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the 
princes of the congregation, went forth to meet 
them without the camp. 

*' And Moses was wroth with the officers of the 
host, with the captains over thousands, and cap- 
tains over hundreds, which came from the battle. 

** And Moses said unto them. Have ye saved all 
the women alive ? 

" Behold, these caused the children of Israel, 
through the counsel of Balaam, to commit tres- 
pass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and 
there was a plague among the congregation of 
the Lord. 

'* Now therefore kill every male among the lit- 
tle ones, and kill every woman that hath known 
man by lying with hirn. 

'* But all the women children, that have not 
known a man by lying with him, keep alive for 
yourselves."^ 

* Just at this time the Boers, overcome in war, are at the mercy 
of the English. 

Suppose that the British commander (claiming to act under 
divine inspiration), treated those poor people as Moses treated 



40 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

. . . *' And the booty, being the rest of the prey 
which the men of war had caught, was six hundred 
thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand 
sheep. 

*' And threescore and twelve thousand beeves. 

" And threescore and one thousand asses. 

" And thirty and two thousand persons, in all, 
of women that had not known man by lying with 
him." 

Psalms CIX. 

" Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise ; 

" For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth 
of the deceitful are opened against me : they have 
spoken against me with a lying tongue. 

'' They compassed me about also with words of 
hatred ; and fought against me without a cause. 

'' For my love they are my adversaries : but I 
give myself unto prayer. 

'* And they have rewarded me evil for good, and 
hatred for my love. 

^* Set thou a wicked man over him : and let 
Satan stand at his right hand. 

'* When he shall be judged, let him be con- 
demned : and let his prayer become sin. 

^' Let his days be few ; and let another take his 
office. 

*' Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a 
widow. 

'' Let his children be continually vagabonds, 
and beg : let them seek their bread also out of 
their desolate places. 

the Midianites — what would Christendom and Humanity say 
to it? 

Yet it is said that Moses acted by the direct command of God I 
What a libel on the Eternal Goodness. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 41 

*^ Let the extortioner catch all that he hath ; 
and let the strangers spoil his labor. 

** Let there be none to extend mercy unto him : 
neither let there be any to favor his fatherless 
children. 

" Let his posterity be cut off ; and in the gen- 
eration following let their name be blotted 
out. 

*' Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered 
with the Lord ; and let not the sin of his mother 
be blotted out. 

" Let them be before the Lord continually, 
that he may cut off the memory of them from the 
earth. 

" Because that he remembered not to show 
mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, 
that he might even slay the broken in heart. 

" As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him : 
as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far 
from him. 

"As he clothed himself with cursing like as 
with his garment, so let it come into his bowels 
like water, and like oil into his bones. 

'* Let it be unto him as the garment which cov- 
ereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded 
continually. 

** Let this be the reward of mine adversaries 
from the Lord, and of them that speak evil 
against my soul. 

'* But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy 
name's sake : because thy mercy is good, deliver 
thou me. 

'* For I am poor and needy, and my heart is 
wounded within me. 

" I am gone like the shadow when it declineth : 
I am tossed up and down as the locust. 



42 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

'' My knees are weak through fasting ; and my 
flesh faileth of fatness. 

'' I became also a reproach unto them : when 
they looked upon me they shaked their heads. 

** Help me, O Lord my God : O save me accord- 
ing to thy mercy : 

*' That they may know that this is thy hand ; 
that thou, Lord, hast done it. 

'' Let them curse, but bless thou ; when they 
arise, let them be ashamed ; but let thy servant 
rejoice. 

'^ Let mine adversaries be clothed. with shame, 
and let them cover themselves with their own 
confusion, as with a mantle. 

*' I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth ; 
yea, I will praise him among the multitude. 

^' For he shall stand at the right hand of the 
poor, to save him from those thrt condemn his 
soul/' 

There is no consistency between the barbarity 
and the savage hatred set forth in these chapters, 
and the true theory of an All Wise, All Seeing, All 
Merciful, and All Powerful God ! One need not 
be a theologian to exclaim, '^ NEVER ! " 

Far be it from me to acclaim against the higher 
teachings of that grand old book, the Bible. But 
we cannot, nor need not, shut our eyes to the fact, 
that, strangely mingled with these higher teachings, 
there is much that is the work of unlettered 
savagery. The two chapters to which I have 
called attention are but samples of many more 
that might be referred to. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, 43 

David is said to be the author of one of them. 
If so, it hardly marks him as divinely inspired 
above other historical characters. It proves him 
to have been like other men, a mixture of good 
and evil. Though there was much of good in 
David, there was also much of evil, for the Bible 
tells us he was an adulterer and a murderer ! I 
do not write this from choice, but because we are 
dealing in facts. 

It cannot injure you to see the truth. Men of 
David's time were not inspired above men who 
have lived and are living in the nineteenth century. 

Let the literal believer in the absolute infalli- 
bility and inerrancy of the Bible, re-read these 
chapters before he again proclaims his perfect 
faith in the inspired truth, justice, wisdom, and 
beauty of everything contained in the Book ! 
Clearly they teach vindictiveness, revenge, and 
barbaric cruelty ! Is it justice or even fairness 
toward our Heavenly Father, to believe that He 
ever authorized such infamous teachings? No! 
No! No! 

The Bible has been translated and re-translated 
many times. Necessarily from this cause passages 
have many times been differently rendered and, 
in some instances, meanings changed. The version 
now most generally used in England and the 
United States is known as the King James version. 
It was the work of forty-seven English divines 
between the years 1606 and 1611. 



44 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

This was revised about twenty years ago, by 
the labor of over one hundred of the most 
eminent scholars, about two-thirds of whom were 
English and the remaining third American. 

These learned men found in the King James 
version thousands of errors, most of them involving 
little change in meaning, but, on the other hand, 
some of great importance. In one instance a 
whole verse was interpolated. It is this: ist 
John, 5th Chapter, 7th verse. ** For there are three 
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, 
and the Holy Ghost and these three are one.*' 

Modern scholars find no authority for this verse. 
It is clearly an insertion — the work of translators, 
who took this method of placing a support under 
the top-heavy doctrine of the Trinity. 

While we are writing of this subject, let us say 
there are three distinct objections to the doctrine 
of the Trinity. 

1st. It is unreasonable, 

2nd. It is unscriptural ! 

3rd. It is impossible ! 

The claim that there are " three persons in the 
Godhead " is the invention of men whose aim was 
only to make religion complex, intricate, and 
mysterious. Jesus never said anything about 
three persons in the Godhead. If it were true. 
He was one of the persons and must have known 
it. He was silent as to the composition of the 
*' Godhead." Every text that might be said to 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 45 

support such a teaching is ambiguous, while there 
are numerous texts to prove that He believed in 
one Heavenly Father, one only God ! 

*' As my Father hath taught me, I speak these 
things/' 

" My Father is greater than I/' 

^* The words that I speak unto you, I speak not 
of myself ; but the Father that dwelleth in me, 
He doeth the works/' 

And He taught us to pray to '' our Father/' 

The doctrine of the Trinity invites the ridicule 
of many earnest, thinking men. Here is a speci- 
men of this from the pen of a man alike distin- 
guished for intelligence, honesty, and wit. *^ Ac- 
cording to the faith, each of these three persons 
is God. Christ is his own Father and his own son. 
The Holy Ghost is neither father nor son, but 
both. The son was begotten by the father, but 
existed before he was begotten, just the same 
before as after. Christ is just as old as his father 
and the father is just as young as the son. The 
Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the 
Son, but was equal to the Father and Son before 
he proceeded, that is to say before he existed, but 
he is of the same age of the other two, and is 
their equal in power and glory. So it is declared 
that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and 
the Holy Ghost is God, and that these three Gods 
make one God. 

'' According to the celestial multiplication table, 



46 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

once one is three, and three times one is one, 
and according to theological subtraction, if we 
take two from three, three are left. The addi- 
tion is equally peculiar, if we add two to one, we 
have but one. Each one is equal to himself and 
the other two. Nothing ever was, nothing ever 
can be, more perfectly idiotic or absurd than the 
dogma of the Trinity. 

** How is it possible to prove the existence of 
the Trinity ? 

" Is it possible for a human being who has been 
born but once, to comprehend, or to imagine the 
existence of three beings, each of whom is equal 
to the three ? 

*' Think of one of these beings as the father of 
one, and think of that one as half human and all 
God, and think of the third as having proceeded 
from the other two and then think of all three as 
one, think that after the father begot the son the 
father was still alone, and after the Holy Ghost 
proceeded from the father and the son, the father 
was still alone, because there never was and never 
will be but one God. 

'^ At this point absurdity has reached its limit.*' 
(See Athanasian Creed in chapter on Episco- 
palianism.) 

Trinity is inevitably a target for just such de- 
rision ; and the great trouble is, people are apt to 
infer that this is ridiculing religion, when in fact 
it only applies to an absurd dogma. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 47 

If the doctrine of the Trinity belonged to the 
Chinese or the Hindoos, we should consider this 
quotation as droll and amusing, but, at the same 
time, logical and correct. But, as it is the prop- 
erty of Christian theology, it will be character- 
ized as sacrilege, or blasphemy, or infidelity, or 
all three together, according to the bias of the 
reader. 

Theology, however, does not appraise Trinity 
quite as highly as an asset, as it did twenty-five 
years ago. It is steadily decreasing in value and 
before many more years have passed, it will be 
placed in the divinity museum, along with ghosts 
and goblins, witchcraft and mythology. 

A word as to inspiration, which is claimed by 
each of the four great religions of the world, and 
as belonging exclusively to their own system of 
faith. Proof is as abundant and as deficient, as 
applied to either. The teachings of Brahma, Con- 
fucius, and Buddha are superior to the teachings of 
Moses. All who study them without prejudice, 
must admit this. 

Perhaps the truth is all mankind is inspired ; 
the difference being only in degree. There is as 
much reason to believe that Luther and Milton 
and Shakespeare and Macaulay were inspired, as 
to believe that inspiration belonged to Moses or 
Ezekiel or David. ** God is no respecter of 
persons." 

Why should we not read the Bible as we read 



48 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

any other book, as history, or as poetry, or as a 
work on any branch of science ? 

Has not our Creator given us reason and the 
capacity to judge for ourselves? Are we not to 
make use of these God-given powers ? Where is 
the command that we should not use these facul- 
ties as well in spiritual as in secular things? Is it 
not even more important? The command is, 
** Search the Scriptures." What is the use of 
searching^ if we are not to come to conclusions 
through our examinations ? Where is the pro- 
priety in our being compelled to accept " doc- 
trines" that were formulated by the ignorance 
and superstition of the '^ Fathers ? " Why should 
the car of human progress be stopped or stayed 
in spiritual things more than in matters of discov- 
ery or science ? 

These are all questions for our readers to con- 
sider fairly and seriously. They should never be 
ignored or set aside. 

Read, study, and reflect on the Bible. Draw 
from it that which is good. In your examinations, 
you will certainly find many contradictions, much 
that is pernicious and false. Crimes and savage 
cruelties are commanded and indorsed by God 
himself, and barbarous sins and atrocities are ac- 
counted as righteousness. 

It will not hurt you, nor need it disturb your 
faith ; if you read aright, it will confirm and 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 49 

strengthen it. TRUTH injures no one. It looks 
serenely down upon doctrines and dogmas. 

A grand Bible is being written to-day. It is 
all about us. It is in the invisible air we breathe. 
It shines from the sun and stars. It looks down 
upon us from the mountain top. It is developed 
in the budding leaf and in the opening flower. 
Not a blade of grass, but that has its lesson for 
us to read. All nature is ever telling us of the 
wisdom, power, and grandeur of the great 
Creator in whom " we live and move and have 
our being.'* 

The Bible of Nature is, always has been, and 
always will be open to all. It admits of no error, 
misinterpretation, or misunderstanding. In it, 
we read of and see God's power, without having 
to depend on what was said or written by men 
hundreds or thousands of years ago. 

We may indeed take our lessons from the 
natural. If we depend upon the supernatural, we 
shall be, as man always has been, disappointed. 
There is absolutely no substantial evidence that 
anything supernatural ever happened. Theology 
asserts it, but never has and never will be able to 
prove or demonstrate it. 

Was there ever such a thing as a miracle, as 
commonly taught and believed ? 

Were miracles necessary in the ancient times ? 

Are they not equally necessary at the beginning 
of the twentieth century. 
4 



50 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

Are many people still looking for them ? 

Does science or intelligence expect them ? 

It seems unfortunate that among Christians, 
there should be so much divergence of belief. If 
Catholicism is true and right, then, in some re- 
spects, Protestantism must be false and wrong ; 
and vice versa. 

In like manner, among Protestants ; if one de- 
nomination or sect is correct, it follows necessarily 
that the others are in error. Think of an Episco- 
palian missionary and a Presbyterian missionary, 
each calling to a poor heathen : '' Come in here ! 
This is the place ! We will teach you the truth ! *' 
The confused heathen stares first at one and then 
at the other ; decides perhaps that both are luna- 
tics, and goes about his business. 

Complex and inharmonious dogmas, doctrines 
and small theories, are only stumbling-blocks to 
the heathen, and obstacles to the spread of Chris- 
tianity. The pure, simple, unembellished teachings 
of Jesus-— goodness, kindness, and love — would be 
far betfer. 

ROMAN CATHOLICISM. 

In many respects the history of the Catholic 
Church down to the time of the Reformation is 
the history of Christianity. 

It is not within the sphere of this small book to 
take up such a history. Libraries are filled with 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. $1 

volumes on this subject. It will only be noticed 
that for the first three centuries Christian teaching 
was simple and wonderfully progressive. Then 
came extended organization, and this involved 
the invention of all manner of dogma and doctrine, 
good, indifferent, and bad ; but mostly bad. 

Priests, Bishops, and Popes became in too many 
instances debased and corrupt. Especially was 
this true of many of the Popes, who often de- 
throned, imprisoned, tortured, starved, and mur- 
dered each other, and all in the professed name of 
Christianity ! 

Under some of the Popes, the papal palace was 
little better than a brothel. And yet it was, and 
is claimed and believed, that the Popes were, and 
are, the successors of St. Peter and the vicars of 
Christ ! 

Undoubtedly there were among them many 
good men ; but not one reformer, nor one pro- 
gressive man ! Their tendency seemed to be from 
bad to worse until the year 1520, when Martin 
Luther, unable longer to bear their iniquities 
(principally the sale of indulgences, that gave the 
buyer immunity from crime), began that glorious 
movement, the Reformation. 

For accounts and descriptions of the character 
of the Popes during the dark ages, see *' Gibbon's 
Rome,'' or *' Draper's History of the Intellectual 
Development of Europe." 

Lest some may think our estimate of the Popes 



52 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

who ruled the Church during the dark ages, is un- 
just or unfair we will quote a few sentences from 
the last mentioned authority. 

'' From 896 to 900, five Popes were consecrated. 
Leo v., who succeeded in 904, in less than two 
months after he became Pope, was cast into prison 
by Christopher, one of his chaplains. This Chris- 
topher usurped his place and in a little while was 
expelled from Rome by Sergius III., who became 
Pope in 905. This Pope lived in criminal inter- 
course with the celebrated Theodora, who with 
her daughters, Marozia and Theodora, both pros- 
titutes, exercised an extraordinary control over 
him. The love of Theodora was also shared by 
John X. She gave him first the Archbishopric 
of Ravenna, and made him Pope in 915. The 
daughter of Theodora overthrew this Pope. She 
surprised him in the Lateran Palace. His brother 
Peter was killed and the Pope was thrown into 
prison, where he was afterward murdered. After- 
ward, this Marozia, daughter of Theodora, made 
her own son. Pope John XI. Many affirmed that 
Pope Sergius was his father, diif his mother m- 
dined to attribute him to lier husband, Alberie, 
whose brother Guido, she afterward married. 
Another of her sons, Alberic, jealous of his 
brother John, the Pope, cast him and their 
mother into prison. Alberic^s son was then 
elected Pope as John XII. 

*' John was nineteen years old when he became 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 53 

the ' Vicar of Christ.* His reign was character- 
ized by the most shocking immoralities, so that 
the Emperor, Otho L, was compelled by the Ger- 
man clergy to interfere. He was tried. It ap- 
peared that John had received bribes for the con- 
secration of bishops ; that he had ordained one 
who was only ten years old ; that he was charged 
with incest, and with so many adulteries that the 
Lateran Palace had become a brothel. He put 
out the eyes of one ecclesiastic ; he maimed an- 
other ; both dying in consequence of their injuries. 
He was deposed at last and Leo VIH. elected in 
his stead. Subsequently he got the upper hand. 
He seized his antagonists ; he cut off the hand of 
one, the nose, the finger, and the tongue of others. 
His life was eventually brought to an end, by the 
vengeance of a man whose wife he had seduced. 

" John Xni. (the next Pope) was strangled in 
prison. Boniface VH. imprisoned Benedict VH. 
and starved him to death. John XIV. was se- 
cretly put to death in the dungeons of the castle 
of St. Angelo. The corpse of Boniface was 
dragged through the streets by the populace. 

" Pope John XVI. was seized ; his eyes put out, 
his nose cut off, his tongue torn from his mouth, 
and he was sent through the streets mounted on 
an ass, with his face to the tail. Benedict IX., a 
boy of less than twelve years of age, was raised to 
the apostolic throne. One of his successors, Vic- 
tor III., declared that \he life of Benedict was so 



54 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

shameful, so foul, so execrable, that he shuddered 
to describe it. He ruled like a captain of ban- 
ditti. The people, unable to bear longer his adul- 
teries his homicides, and his abominations, rose 
against him, and in despair of maintaining his 
position, he put the papacy up at auction and it 
was bought by a Presbyter named John, who be- 
came Gregory VI. in the year of grace 1045/' 

Going back a little in the same history, we find 
this : " Formosus, who had been excommunicated 
as a conspirator for the murder of Pope John, 
was himself elected Pope in 891. Boniface was 
his successor. He had been deposed from the 
diaconate and from the priesthood for his immoral 
and lewd life. Stephen VH. was the next Pope, 
and he had the dead body of Formosus taken 
from the grave, clothed in papal habiliments, 
propped up in a chair and tried before a Council ! 
The corpse was found guilty, three fingers were 
cut off, and the body cast into the Tiber. After- 
ward, Stephen VII. was himself thrown into prison 
and strangled.*' 

Can the imagination conceive of anything more 
ungodly, more un-Christlike, more immoral, more 
fiendish, or more utterly barbarous than the fore- 
going? And yet the Catholic Church modestly 
puts forth the claim that '' the Pontiffs are the 
greatest statesmen and rulers that the world has 
ever seen ! '' 

Let our readers draw their own conclusions, we 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 55 

simply give the facts. It would certainly be un- 
just to condemn all the Popes, because some of 
them were vicious, and most certainly it would be 
unfair to censure the Catholic Church, because it 
has been wronged by some of its leaders — leaders 
whose savage acts no good Catholic of to-day 
would for an instant endorse. On the contrary, 
no man or body of men would repudiate them 
more earnestly, nor condemn them with greater 
severity. 

What we have said and quoted is simply to 
show those, who claim and believe that everything 
in the Catholic Church is good and perfect, that 
they mistake. No church that has ever existed 
can substantiate such a claim. 

Turning from the Popes, we may refer to the 
cruelties that were perpetrated during the Cru- 
sades ; the Mohammedans and Christians vieing 
with each other in all that was barbarous and 
savage. 

In the first of the Crusades, a great rabble was 
assembled under ignorant leaders, like Peter the 
Hermit, and Walter the Penniless. It was called 
an army, but was really a great mob of fanatics, 
to whom the clergy had promised the divine pro- 
tection. Hideous failure was the result, scores of 
thousands perishing by sickness, starvation, and 
the sword of the Mohammedans. In the First 
Crusade more than half a million of men died, but 
it never even approached the city it expected to 
capture. 



56 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

Subsequently Jerusalem was taken by a some- 
what better organized expedition. This was at- 
tended with atrocities almost incredible, too hor- 
rible to describe, in which nearly 70,000 persons, 
men, women, and children, were massacred, the 
church authorities '* partaking in the triumph ! '' 

There were in all eight crusades, all of which 
were stimulated and encouraged by the Church. 
Millions of lives were sacrificed, under conditions 
and circumstances that were barbarous and savage 
beyond description. And yet these Crusades were 
called '* holy wars/' The ignorant fanatics who 
formed the armies were promised heavenly re- 
wards, and the greatest criminals looked upon the 
service as an expiation for all their crimes. 

The Inquisition was established during the time 
of Pope Gregory IX. (1227 to 1241.) He placed 
it in charge of the Dominicans, an order espe- 
cially founded for the punishment of the crime of 
heresy. In 1229 the Council of Toulouse adopted 
a number of canons for the purpose of giving per- 
manence to the Inquisition. It was ordained that 
in every parish, a priest and three laymen should 
be appointed to search out heretics. Any person 
who in any manner shielded a heretic, was to be 
punished by forfeiture of land, personal property, 
and official position. Houses in which heretics 
were found were to be destroyed. Those accused 
or suspected of heresy were to be excluded from 
medical attendance. Men from the age of four- 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 5/ 

teen and women from the age of twelve were to 
make oath (and renew it every two years), that 
they would inform on heretics. The laity were 
strictly prohibited from having the Holy Scrip- 
tures. 

In 1252 Pope Innocent IV. sanctioned the use 
of torture against heresy. Burning alive was the 
usual form of capital punishment, though in some 
mitigated cases the condemned were strangled 
before burning. 

The Inquisition was used in Germany for a brief 
time only, and its power was destroyed by the 
Reformation. In Italy, it was somewhat more 
severe, until it was abolished by Napoleon in 1808. 
Pope Pius VII. restored it in 1814, and it existed 
until 1870 and was only extinguished when Italy 
was ruled by a king instead of a pope. 

In Spain and the Netherlands, however, its 
savage barbarities were practised to the fullest 
extent. In the first named country four days 
after the first edict, six condemned heretics were 
burned. The nobility were threatened with de- 
privation of title and property if they failed to 
obey the orders of the Inquisition ! The dead 
were accused and convicted, and their bodies were 
dug up and burned. The tyrannical rulers worked 
in harmony with the Inquisition, for both felt 
themselves in danger from the spread of intel- 
ligence. 

Thomas Torquemada was appointed to the holy 



58 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

office of Inquisitor-General of Spain and under 
his administration it is said that 9,000 heretics 
were burned alive ! Many times this number 
were imprisoned, tortured, and punished in other 
w^ays. 

The Inquisition continued in Spain until 1808, 
when it was abolished by Napoleon. Slovente 
estimated that there had been burned alive 31,912 
persons, and that severe punishments of other 
kinds had been inflicted upon 291,456 others, in- 
cluding all of the most savage tortures that human 
ingenuity could invent. These estimates may be 
somewhat extreme. Roman Catholic authorities 
claim that not more than 4,000 were burned alive. 

The Church party claimed that the Inquisition 
was necessary for the preservation of religion ! 
They succeeded in again establishing it in 1826, 
but it was finally abolished in 1834. 

In the Netherlands, the cruelties practised were 
even worse than in Spain. Motley says : ** The 
number of Netherlanders burned, strangled, be- 
headed, or buried alive, in obedience to the edict 
of Charles V., has been placed as high as 100,000 
by distinguished authorities, and has never been 
put at a lower mark than 50,000.'* 

It is proper to say that in this terrible slaughter, 
politics went hand in hand with the Inquisition, 
the despotic Charles doing, in the name of the 
Church, what he dared not do from mere motives 
of political hatred. Nor was he alone in this. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, 59 

Other tyrants of those times, used the name of 
reHgion as an instrument of revenge upon their 
foes. 

I have spoken of the baseness of some of the 
Popes of the middle ages, of the fanaticism and 
unreasoning folly which inaugurated and carried 
on the Crusades, and of the indescribable cruelties 
of the Inquisition ; but I have only done so be- 
cause they are historic facts, and should be taken 
into consideration in our estimates of the value of 
historic Christianity. 

There are those who are inclined to hold Cath- 
olics of the present day responsible for their 
church evils of past ages. This is unjust and 
wrong, and Catholics naturally and very properly 
resent it. We must remember that in the be- 
nighted times, during which these dismal atrocities 
were enacted, the standards of morality and reli- 
gion were entirely different from those of the 
present day. 

In England and Ireland, during the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth, the Catholics were outrageously 
persecuted by the Protestants. But Englishmen 
of the present day cannot justly be held respon- 
sible for the cruel acts of their ancestors genera- 
tions ago. 

John Calvin instigated the burning of Servetus 
for his opinions ! Presbyterians cannot be held 
responsible for this. 

Likewise it should be remembered that in those 



6o CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

days, trivial offenses were often punished with 
great severity. Until about a hundred years ago 
men were hung in England for stealing sheep ! 

Two or three centuries ago, thousands and 
thousands of women in Germany were burned for 
the crime of witchcraft ! Men were also burned 
for this crime, and, in a few cases, children of 
seven years and upward ! 

In Scotland similar barbarities occurred. To 
come nearer home, under the same accusations, 
women were burned alive for witchcraft at Salem, 
in the State of Massachusetts, in 1791 and 1792! 

But while Catholics of the present day are 
blameless for the occurrences of the dark ages, 
they, together with Protestants, both orthodox 
and liberal, may look back with wonder that such 
atrocities were sanctioned or even permitted by a 
Church that had its foundations in the teachings 
of Jesus, and whose power practically controlled 
all the nations of Europe ! 

Why did she permit this condition of barbarity ? 
Why had she not developed in virtue, in justice, 
in morality, and in intelligence as she had in 
influence and power ? 

The answer is clear and plain. She suffered 
then from the same cause that hampers and retards 
her to-day, tJie spirit of improgressiveness ! The 
Church has in almost everything opposed prog- 
ress. She is and has been the opponent of dis- 
covery, of science, of liberty, and of intelligence ! 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 6l 

She has always turned a deaf ear to reason and 
argument and, as far as possible, closed her eyes 
to the developments that were going on around 
her ! All that she has permitted of progress, 
has come to her from without ; nothing from 
within. 

So with the people she most closely controls, 
as for example, Italy and Spain ! The Church 
does not help them toward intelligence and prog- 
ress ; what they gain in these things, comes from 
outside sources. 

No one owes more to Luther and the Reforma- 
tion, than the Catholic Church, It was a prod 
from the outside, that woke her up and forced 
upon her the realization that she must discontinue 
some, at least, of her vile practises. 

With her hide-bound conservatism, the Church 
would have been burning her opponents and 
the Pope would have been selling indulgences 
to-day had it not been for the Reformation ! 

My Catholic friends, wake up to an appreciation 
of the value of progressive thought ! Go forward 
with the intelligence of the world ! Let progress 
and improvement come from your center, rather 
than have it forced upon you from the circumfer 
ence ! Investigate and discover the cause of the 
non-progressiveness of your people, and when you 
have detected it, remove it. Adopt advanced 
thought as it shall prove its truth ! What is the 
value of conservatism, of tradition, doctrine, dogma, 



62 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

of historical Christianity, when compared with 
truth ? 

In a recent number of the North American 
Review (Dec, 1899), is an article on the confes- 
sional in the Catholic Church, written by a priest. 
It is a very careful and able presentation of the 
subject from the Churches point of view. Its 
whole tone of earnestness bears evidence of the 
honesty of its author, and I do not for one moment 
question his perfect sincerity. But I differ en- 
tirely from him in his deductions and conclusions. 

The average Catholic seems to believe that 
when he or she has been to confession and received 
from the priest what they are pleased to call ab- 
solution, his or her score is wiped off the slate ; 
they now begin with a new record. How easy it 
was after all ! Not half as bad as a call upon the 
dentist and the extraction of an offending molar ! 

A fortnight later, they call again and get a 
similar relief. 

Ah ! by what authority can any man say to an- 
other directly or indirectly *'thy sins are for- 
given ?** 

There is no such power in priest or bishops car- 
dinal or pope ! 

Our friend, the author of the article referred 
to, says : '* I have myself often heard, from the 
lips of those who had told me some sad tale of 
wilful and long continued sin, the joyful exclama- 
tion, ' Now father, I begin to feel better.' The 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 63 

inexpressible relief was due, in great measure, to 
the mere outpouring of their sad story/' 

They were also, it should be remembered, 
greatly encouraged toward again committing the 
same sin, and coming again, '^ outpouring their 
sad story/' That is the logical and natural result. 

Far better than relief through confession teach 
them the immutable truth, that neither through 
the confession, the priest, nor the Church, can man 
ever escape or evade the just consequences of his 
wrong-doing ! " The kingdom of God is within 
you," and through that kingdom alone, can your 
forgiveness, your reconciliation come. 

Here is another example of the working of the 
confessional, told to me by my niece, who was born 
in Guatemala. A poor native there had stolen a 
chicken. He confessed this, and the priest rep- 
rimanded him for his sin and charged him that 
he must say the pater-noster five times as penance. 
This he did, and felt entirely relieved. Subse- 
quently he stole two chickens, and then repeated 
the pater-noster ten times, feeling that he had the 
authority of the priest, for concluding, that if one 
chicken equaled five pater-nosters, clearly two 
chickens equaled ten ! 

Superstition is still a dark spot on the Catholic 
Church. It always has been and still is taught to 
her people, a deception upon the ignorant. 

During the dark ages, all unusual phenomena 
in the heavens, such as eclipses, comets, and fall- 



64 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

ing stars, were accounted for by superstition. 
Those days have passed, and superstition feeds 
on something less lofty. Catholics are taught to 
revere a bone, or a tooth, from the body of a 
martyr, as possessing some divine power of heal- 
ing or of grace. The picture or statue of a 
"saint" is claimed to be endowed with the 
power of working wonders or even miracles ! 
Old sandals, holy hair^ even ancient rags are 
amulets or charms supposed to be possessed of 
divine virtue ! Incredible as it may seem, there 
are to-day millions among the illiterate Catholics, 
who reverently believe in these superstitions ! 

It is time the clergy of the Church set about 
eradicating this condition of ignorance. All be- 
lief in the supernatural should have been banished 
ages ago, outgrown by the calm, steady develop- 
ment of progressive knowledge. 

But above all things, it is time that Catholic 
teachers infused into their people an appreciation 
of their individuality, their personality. It is 
nothing less than a crime to rob them of this by 
teaching them to place their dependence upon the 
priest or the Church, the saints or the Virgin. 
Such beliefs narrow their personality and make 
them mere machines. They are practically for- 
bidden from obeying the Master's injunction, 
'* Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be 
opened unto you ! " Was this command uttered 
only to the priests ? Not so. Jesus chose his dis- 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 65 

ciples from among the unlettered, and his ministry 
was principally among the poor and the ignorant. 

Catholics are, it is believed, invariably trinita- 
rians. The (so-called) Apostles' Creed, as given 
below, embodies their main faith. 

*' I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Crea- 
tor of heaven and earth ; and in Jesus Christ, His 
only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the 
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered 
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was 
buried. He descended into hell; the third day 
He rose again from the dead ; He ascended into 
heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the 
Father Almighty ; from thence he shall come to 
judge the living and the dead. I believe in the 
Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the com- 
munion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the res- 
urrection of the body and the life everlasting. 
Amen.'' 

Older than this is the Nicene Creed. It is of 
unknown authorship, but was adopted by the first 
Council of Nice, in the year 325, and amended to 
about its present form by the Council of Constan- 
tinople in 381. 

In the Catholic ^* Key of Heaven " (or prayer 
book) as now in common use, it is rendered as 
follows : 

^* I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, 
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things vis- 
ible and invisible. 
5 



66 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

** And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only be- 
gotten Son of God, born of the Father, before all 
ages. God of God. Light of light ; true God of 
true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with 
the Father, by whom all things were made. Who 
for us men, and for our salvation, came down 
from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy 
Ghost, of the Virgin Mary ; and was made man. 
[Here the people kneel dow?t.) He was crucified 
also for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate and was 
buried. The third day He rose again according 
to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth at the right hand of the Father ; and He 
shall come to judge both the living and the dead ; 
of His kingdom there shall be no end. And I 
believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and life-giver 
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who 
together with the Father and the Son is adored 
and glorified ; who spake by the prophets ; and 
one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I con- 
fess one baptism for the remission of sins, and I 
look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life 
of the world to come. Amen.** 

Formerly this was taught and believed : 

^* Whosoever will be saved, before all things it 
is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. 

"" Which faith, except every one do keep entire 
and inviolate, without doubt, he shall everlast- 
ingly perish.'* ^ 

* For this creed in full see page 82 in Chapter on Episcopal- 
ianism. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 6/ 

It is not probable that all intelligent Catholics 
of the present day will insist upon the foregoing. 
Nothing could be more narrow than to believe 
that those inhabitants of this globe who lived be- 
fore the Catholic Church was formed, and the 
countless millions since who have never heard of 
it, are everlastingly damned for their innocent 
lack of information. 

The Catholic Church embraces fully two-thirds 
of all who call themselves Christians. Notwith- 
standing her great opportunities for extending in- 
telligence and learning, it cannot be denied that 
she does practically but little in this direction. 
Her great schools, colleges, and convents are more 
for inculcating her own religious doctrines than 
for the promoting and spreading of enlightenment 
and intelligence. 

The people of the republics of South and Cen- 
tral America and Mexico are undoubtedly the 
most ignorant of all nations known as Christians ; 
schools, teachers, and books are few and far be- 
tween. In all these countries the Catholic re- 
ligion prevails. The poor natives, who compose 
most of their population, have rarely any means 
of obtaining even the smallest rudiments of an 
education. 

Some years ago the writer, while traveling in 
Mexico, was obliged to remain for two or three 
days at a small village called Zanapa, while wait- 
ing for horses with which to continue his journey. 



68 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

Going into the little church near the center of the 
village, he saw a rude wooden image of the patron 
saint of the church. He was told with the utmost 
gravity by the attendant in the church, that on 
the evening before, they had a procession (a very 
common custom in such towns), and that they 
took out the figure of their saint. This was to 
make it rain. Asked if he would make it rain, the 
man replied, *' Yes, unless the people were very 
wicked. Then he would not do it." This man 
and the simple people of the village believed with- 
out question, that this clumsily made wooden 
image possessed the power to produce rain to 
order ! This little single incident is only given as 
an example of what any traveler in Spanish- 
American countries may meet in any of the small 
towns. 

Benighted though these people are, they are 
scarcely more so than the poor peasants of Italy, 
Spain, or Portugal, countries where intelligence 
instead of dense ignorance ought to be the rule. 
Here the poor people are mostly huddled into 
small villages, every one of which has its church, 
with its outfit of priests and attendants. These 
of course live from the labor of the peasants, and 
in return, keep them in densest ignorance and 
make them believe that their only hope of salva- 
tion is through church and priest ! Pitiable indeed 
is their condition, and there is little or no prospect 
of improvement. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 69 

For this the Catholic Church, through its con- 
currence and its teaching, should be held chiefly 
responsible. Contrast the condition of these 
people with that of the people of England, Ger- 
many, or the United States ! 

If five-sixths of the churches of these countries 
could be transformed into schoolhouses, nine- 
tenths of the priestcraft be turned into progressive 
and capable teachers, and the value of the jewels, 
the gold, and the silver that so uselessly decorate 
the images in their cathedrals could be invested 
in schoolbooks and libraries, in a few generations 
Italy, Spain, and Portugal would rival the most 
advanced nations of Europe. Darkness would 
give way to light, midnight to noonday, ignorance 
and poverty to intelligence and thrift ! Bandits 
and bull fights would be as rare as they are in 
Germany or England.^ 

Of course there is much of good in the Church 
to these people. The confessional has a great 
restraining influence, and amidst the environment 
of ignorance which prevails it is possibly a neces- 
sity at present. It is not so with the people of 

* *' What are these ? " said Napoleon, pointing to a dozen silver 
images in a Spanish cathedral. 

" Statues of the Twelve Apostles, Sire." 

" Melt them, and turn them into coin ! " 

" But they were given to the Holy Church by Count Blanki- 
blanki. Sire ! " 

" Turn them into coin, and let them go about doing good as 
did their Master ! Of what use are they here ? " 



^o 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 



education, for to them the confessional would be 
only degrading. 

The Catholic Church is noted for its kindness to 
the poor, the sick, and the suffering. Many of 
the priests are tireless in their labor for these, and 
nothing could be more self-sacrificing than the 
work of the nuns and sisters of charity. Thou- 
sands of orphans and invalids are supported and 
cared for in their asylums and hospitals. 

Every one knows that the claim of the Church, 
that the Protestant movement could not succeed 
because it was unsupported by the power of 
Rome, has been abundantly disproved. 

Not only did the Reformation succeed, but since 
then the nations that came under its influence 
have made far greater progress in science, art, 
intelligence, and morality, than the nations which 
adhered to the Church of Rome. 

If we think of the influence of the Catholic 
religion upon its people in the United States, we 
find that it affects individuals as it does nations. 
Go to the prisons, the reformatories, the poor- 
houses, the police and other criminal courts, and 
you will find the percentage of crime among 
Catholics (at least claiming to be such) is in far 
greater proportion than the average. 

It would seem from these conditions, plain and 
clear, that the restraining influence of the Cath- 
olic Church IS far less than what it should be. 
If this is not so, it would be instructive and 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 71 

interesting to hear the proof of a different con- 
clusion. 

I have many friends and acquaintances who are 
members of the Catholic Church. One of my 
neighbors is a priest. He is a man of earnestness 
and sincerity, and justly commands the respect of 
all who know him. I am proud to feel that for 
many years a friendship has existed between us, 
though he looks at me as a dreadful heretic, and I 
look at him as a product of heredity and environ- 
ment, — ^^ born and raised a Catholic.'' If he had 
been born and raised in Turkey, he would have 
been an excellent Mohammedan, the good would 
have come to the surface wherever he came up. 

To my Catholic friends I wish to say I have no 
prejudice whatever against the Church, no wish or 
willingness to do them a grain of injustice. The 
opinions I have expressed in a plain way are 
given from an earnest conviction that the ultra- 
conservatism of the Church is an injustice both to 
herself and her people. Changes will come, and 
she can no more prevent them, than she could 
prevent the overthrow of the theory that hell was 
beneath the earth, and heaven above the skies. 

THE GREEK CHURCH. 

This body of Christians, which is correctly 
known as the '' Holy Oriental Orthodox Apos- 
tolic Church," includes the Christians of Russia 



72 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

and the East. It separated itself from the Catho- 
lic Church in the year 1054. Prior to this, the 
Eastern Christians had many disputes with the 
Roman Church. One subject of contention (and 
perhaps the main one) was their refusal to accept 
the doctrine that the Holy Ghost proceeded from 
the Father and tlie Son, This doctrine was in- 
vented and inserted into the Nicene Creed, at the 
Council of Toledo in the year 589, which added 
the words, ** and the Son." The Eastern churches 
refused to accept the addition. 

They differ in some other points from the 
Roman Church, perhaps mainly that they have 
no vicar of Christ on earth, corresponding to the 
Pope of the Church of Rome. 

They are also divided into numerous sects, 
which, like Protestant Christians of orthodox 
faith, differ on some points of belief. 

LUTHERANISM. 

Some four hundred years ago, there occurred 
three great and grand movements in the progress 
of the world. These were : 

1st. The discovery of the art of printing. 

2d. The discovery of the American Continent. 

3d. The Reformation. 

For the last of these the world is indebted to 
that fearless advocate of truth and right, Martin 
Luther. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 73 

This incomparable man, who was the leader of 
the Reformation, was the founder of the Lutheran 
Church, which is the established religion of Ger- 
many, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. 

In these different countries the beliefs of Lu- 
therans vary from the severest Calvinism, to the 
constantly growing liberality which is found in 
Germany. 

It would be entirely out of place, in speaking 
of Protestantism, to omit giving at least a brief 
notice of the great Reformer, Martin Luther, who, 
in the grandeur of his character, had the courage 
of his convictions to stand up against the abuses 
of the vast power of the Romish Church. 

Luther was born in the year 1483, at Eisleben, 
in Saxony. His excellent parents gave him a 
good education, and he pursued his studies in his 
native town and subsequently at Magdeburg, 
Eisenach, and Erfurt. At the age of fifteen he 
composed verse in Latin, and at twenty he took 
the degree of Master of Arts. 

Soon after this, while walking one day with a 
friend, they were overtaken by a thunder-storm, 
and his friend was struck by lightning at his side 
and instantly killed. This made such an impres- 
sion upon Luther, that he determined upon enter- 
ing a monastery, and notwithstanding the adverse 
wishes and advice of his friends, he became an 
inmate of the Augustinian Monastery at Erfurt 
in 1505. 



74 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

At the age of twenty-four he took orders and 
celebrated his first mass. He had found in the 
dusty Hbrary of the monastery a copy of the Bible 
in Latin. He diligently studied this neglected 
book, and in a short time was able with ease to 
refer to any of its important passages. Prior to 
this he had, like others, been satisfied with the 
then current teachings, and had never thought of 
examining doctrines in which he suspected no 
error, but now he became dissatisfied and melan- 
choly and settled down to the conclusion that he 
could no longer be in accord with his early beliefs. 
And yet for a time he was in doubt and uncer- 
tainty as to what should take their place. While 
in this state he would dispute and argue with 
those with whom he came in contact, but still his 
doubts continued. He had begun to think^ and to 
prefer study and reflection to the unprogressive, 
monotonous routine of the Romish ceremonies. 
He became a great reader and a vigorous writer, 
but was still a zealous Catholic. 

In 1508 he was appointed a professor in the 
university of Wittenberg. In addition to his 
duties as teacher he occasionally heard confes- 
sions. 

While so engaged, he received the confessions 

of some persons who had been guilty of serious 

crimes, but who had received remission for them 

! in the form of indulgences. This was denounced 

by Luther in the most unmistakable language. 






CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 75 

The persons in question, considering themselves 
aggrieved, complained to Tetzel, a German monk, 
from whom they had obtained these indulgences 
by purchase. Tetzel was at that time one of the 
holy commission charged with the extirpation of 
heresy in Germany, and in his anger he threatened 
Luther with the tortures of the Inquisition. 

Luther remained firm in his position. He still 
desired to avoid any rupture or breach with the 
Church, but he was anxious for a discussion which 
would clearly set forth the claims under conten- 
tion. It must of course be borne in mind that 
this was before the days of newspapers. Luther 
determined to state his position with as much 
publicity as possible in his immediate neighbor- 
hood. He therefore wrote out a series of propo- 
sitions and affixed them to the church adjoining 
the castle of Wittenberg, with an invitation for a 
public discussion of the subjects under considera- 
tion. 

This was followed by a long and tedious con- 
test between Luther and Tetzel in writing. The 
former became more and more earnest in his de- 
nunciations against the practises he complained 
of, and it steadily and surely became apparent 
that the hearts and sympathies of the people were 
with him ; yet a couple of years passed before he 
came to an open rupture with the Church. 

In 1 52 1 Luther published an essay in which he 
dissented from several doctrines of the Church, 



j(> CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

This essay and some of his other publications were 
burned with much form and ceremony at the uni- 
versities of Cologne and Louvain, and also in 
Rome itself. 

In retaliation, Luther publicly burned a number 
of the Church books, among which were the 
letters commonly called ^^ Decretals of the Pon- 
tiffs*' and the ''Bull,'* or proclamation of Pope 
Leo X. A great multitude of people witnessed 
this burning of papal documents and clearly 
evinced their approval of the proceeding. This 
encouraged and sustained Luther, while the ad- 
herents of the Church party were correspondingly 
disappointed, especially at the inefficiency of the 
Pope's bull against Luther. 

Chagrined and mortified by the futility of his 
former efforts, the Pope issued another proclama- 
tion against Luther, this time denouncing him as 
a heretic and formally excommunicating him from 
the holy Church. As in the former instance, how- 
ever, this bull made little or no impression either 
upon Luther or his adherents. On the contrary, 
its effect was only to demonstrate the waning in- 
fluence of papal decrees, where they came in con- 
tact with progressive and independent thought. 

The diet, or council, at Worms took place in 
1 521. It was intended to be so entirely in the 
interest of the agents of the Pope, that Luther 
was warned and advised by his friends not to at- 
tend on account of personal danger. But he was 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. TJ 

fully determined and exclaimed : '' If there were 
as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the 
roofs of the houses, I would go on." 

He entered the diet on the 17th of April. Here 
he was asked if he was the author of certain heret- 
ical books that were pointed out, and he promptly 
replied that he was. He was next asked whether 
he was disposed to retract, or to persist in their 
contents ? To this Luther replied that he would 
deliver his answer next day. 

The most intense excitement prevailed in the 
city, even the roofs of the houses in the neighbor- 
hood of the council are said to have been covered 
with the thoroughly aroused spectators, who were 
divided between the adherents and opponents of 
the great heretic. It is hard to conceive of any- 
thing so thrilling and exciting. 

The next day Luther again entered the council, 
and John Eckius (or as more commonly called 
Doctor Eck), the orator and counsel for the arch- 
bishop of Treves, again asked him whether he re- 
tracted or persisted in his expressions ? Luther 
answered in a speech which lasted for about two 
hours. He spoke in tones of clearness and con- 
fidence, and this notwithstanding the great numbers 
crowded into the room, the angry looks and scowls, 
and the interruptions of his adversaries. 

His concluding words were, '' Let me then be 
refuted and convinced by the Scriptures or by the 
clearest arguments ; otherwise I cannot and will 



78 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

not recant ; for it is neither safe nor expedient to 
act against conscience. Here I take my stand ; I 
can do no otherwise, so help me God ! Amen.'* 

Dr. Eck declared Luther had only answered 
evasively and that he had no right to express 
doubts concerning things that had been settled in 
the councils. To this, Luther again replied claim- 
ing his perfect and entire right to think and to 
decide for himself, and also to express his thoughts 
when clearly defined. 

Many of the people, and among them persons 
of intelligence and influence, favored Luther, while 
others took sides against him ; among these was 
the Emperor. As a result he was declared a 
heretic and a schismatic. In consequence of this 
and fearing that the Emperor would not keep his 
pledge of safe-conduct, the Grand Duke of Saxony 
caused Luther to be kidnapped on his return from 
Worms and to be taken to the castle of the Wart- 
burg, where he was kept a prisoner for his own 
safety for some time. This by no means sup- 
pressed his ardent nature. He wrote essays which 
he found means to publish. Later he carried on 
controversies, among others one with Henry VHL, 
King of England,^ whose vanity led him to be- 
lieve (unfortunately for himself) that he could suc- 
cessfully contend with the Reformer. He, how- 
ever, only succeeded in making himself ridiculous. 

* This Henry was the man of many wives, and was the founder 
of the Church of England. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 79 

Luther now set himself about the great work of 
translating the Bible into German. This involved 
years of labor and close application, but it was 
finally completed in 1530, and remains to this day 
substantially as Luther rendered it. 

As time went on, books and letters seemed to 
flow from his pen. He took severely to task 
some of the German princes, whom he described 
as '' miserable infatuated men, set over the people 
by God in his anger.'* 

Developing and advancing in his convictions, 
Luther discontinued wearing his monastic robe 
and appeared in the plain dress of a teacher. In 
1526 he married Catharine Von Bore, who had 
formerly been a nun. Her sympathies were en- 
tirely with her husband, to whom she was a con- 
stant support during the remainder of his life. 

As a matter of course this marriage was de- 
nounced by the adherents of the Church, who 
maintained that Luther was mad or possessed 
with an evil spirit. Their denunciations, however, 
fell harmlessly on unappreciative ears, and the 
respect and love of the people for Luther con- 
tinued to increase. 

From this time until his death Luther continued 
to write and speak in the interest of the Reforma- 
tion. Though this great movement was really 
begun by Erasmus, Luther was its great and lead- 
ing spirit. It is said by his biographer, Secken- 
dorff, that the total number of his publications of 



8o CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

a controversial nature was upward of eleven hun- 
dred. 

He was a poet and a musical composer of great 
merit. Among his poetical works, is the transla- 
tion of the Psalms for the use of the people. He 
died in 1546 at the age of 63. 

The foregoing sketch is made as brief as possible. 
A full account of his life and his great work is 
most interesting and useful. The world recognizes 
him as one of the greatest of her children. 

EPISCOPALIANISM. 

Until the reign of Henry VHI., the Romish 
Church was in the ascendancy in England. That 
monarch had received from the Pope the title of 
*^ Defender of the Faith," for writing a book 
against the Reformation which Luther had set in 
motion. 

Henry was the man of many wives. Being un- 
able to obtain the sanction of the Pope to his 
divorce from Queen Catharine, he had one act 
passed through Parliament, setting aside the 
authority of the Pope, and another declaring him- 
self to be the supreme head of the Church of 
England. Of this king's six wives, two were di- 
vorced, two were executed, one died, and one sur- 
vived him. He was excommunicated by the Pope. 
Hume says of Henry : '' A catalogue of his 
vices would comprehend many of the worst quali- 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 8 1 

ties incident to human nature, violence, cruelty, 
rapacity, injustice, obstinacy, bigotry, caprice ; 
but neither was he subject to all these vices in the 
most extreme degree, nor was he, at intervals, 
altogether destitute of virtue. He was capable 
of at least a temporary friendship.'' But what- 
ever else he was, this man more than any other 
was the founder of the English Church. 

The belief of Episcopalians is embodied in the 
two creeds of the Catholic Church, the Nicene 
and the Apostles' Creeds, and in what is known 
as the ^' Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion." In 
England the Creed of St. Athanasius is also em- 
ployed. 

The Apostles' Creed is principally used and 
varies slightly from the version of the Catholics. 
It is as follows : 

'' I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker 
of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only 
Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy 
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under 
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. 
He descended into hell ; the third day He rose 
again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven 
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father 
Almighty ; from thence He shall come to judge 
the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy 
Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion 
of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection 
of the body and the life everlasting. Amen." 



82 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

The Nicene Creed is substantially the same as 
that of the Catholic Church, as given in the Chap- 
ter on that faith. 

The Creed of Saint Athanasius is used both by 
the Catholic Church and the English Church. 
It is difficult, or at least not quite easy, for intelli- 
gence to comprehend by what course of logic the 
author of it is, or was, given the title of '* Saint/* 

Here it is : 

*^ Whosoever will be saved, before all things it 
IS necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. 
Which Faith, except every one do keep whole and 
undefiled ; without doubt he shall perish ever- 
lastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this : That 
we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in 
Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor 
dividing the Substance. For there is one Person 
of the Father, another of the Son, and another of 
the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one ; the 
Glory equal, and the Majesty co-eternal. Such 
as the Father is, such is the Son ; and such is the 
Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate, the Son un- 
create, and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father 
incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and 
the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Fathei 
eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost 
eternal. And yet they are not three eternals ; 
but one eternal. As also there are not three in- 
comprehensibles, nor three uncreated ; but one 
uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise 
the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and 
the Holy Ghost Almighty, And yet they are 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 83 

not three Almighties, but one Almighty. So the 
Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy 
Ghost is God. And yet there are not three Gods, 
but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, 
the Son is Lord, and the Holy Ghost is Lord. 
And yet not three Lords, but one Lord. For 
like as we are compelled by the Christian verity ; 
to acknowledge every Person by himself, to be 
God and Lord ; So are we forbidden by the 
Catholic Religion, to say, there be three Gods, 
or three Lords. The Father is made of none : 
neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the 
Father alone ; not made, nor created but begotten. 
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son ; 
neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but pro- 
ceeding. So there is one Father, not three 
Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy 
Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this 
Trinity none is afore, or after other ; none is 
greater, or less than another. But the whole 
three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. 
" So that in all things, as is aforesaid ; the Unity 
in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be wor- 
shipped. He therefore that will be saved, must 
thus think of the Trinity. Furthermore, it is 
necessary to everlasting salvation, that he also 
believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe 
and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God, is God and Man. God of the substance 
of the Father, begotten before the worlds ; and 
Man of the substance of his Mother, born 
in the world. Perfect God, and perfect Man ; 
of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. 
Equal to the Father, as touching his God- 
head; and inferior to the Father as touching 



84 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

his Manhood. Who, although he be God and 
Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ. One ; 
not byconversion of the Godhead into flesh ; but 
by taking of the Manhood into God. One alto- 
gether ; not by confusion of Substance ; but by 
unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and 
flesh is one man ; so God and Man is one Christ. 
Who suffered for our salvation ; descended into 
hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He 
ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right 
hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence 
he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 
At whose coming all men shall rise again with 
their bodies, and shall give account for their own 
works. And they that have done good shall go 
into life everlasting ; and they that have done 
evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic 
faith ; which, except a man believe faithfully, he 
cannot be saved. Glory be to the Father, and to 
the Son, and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the 
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world with- 
out end. Amen." 

Athanasius might with equal propriety have 
added this : 

" When one person of the Godhead takes snufl', 
they all sneeze ; and yet there are not three 
sneezes, but one sneeze." 

He would simply have added to his creed another 
statement — not one whit more absurd than his 
other inventions ! 

The chief function of this creed seems to be an 
attempt to explain the dogma of the Trinity, but 
it can only be said that the explanation is, if 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 85 

possible, more obscure than the dogma it pro- 
fesses to elucidate. No one need hesitate to pro- 
nounce it a pure invention, a hopeless jumble, as 
unreliable as it is absurd. There exists not the 
slightest evidence that Athanasius knew more of 
the Godhead than other men ; simply nothing. 

Whatever may have been the object of St. 
Athanasius and the other Fathers in inventing the 
Trinity idea, is a matter of conjecture only. It 
may have come from a desire to display their 
superior wisdom to the common people, who so 
blindly depended upon the priests for guidance. 
Be that as it may, its distinct effect has been to 
mystify religion, to complicate theology, to befog 
those who are inquiring, and to obscure truth. 

This creed has been omitted from the Book of 
Common Prayer as used in the United States; 
rejected as unreasonable and unbelievable. 

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of the 
Episcopal Church are as follows : 

ARTICLES 

AGREED UPON BY THE ARCHBISHOPS AND BISH- 
OPS OF BOTH PROVINCES, AND THE WHOLE 
CLERGY, 

In the Convocation holden at London, in the 
year 1562, for the avoiding of Diversities of Opin- 
ions, and for the establishing of consent touching 
true Religion ; reprinted by His Majesty's Com- 



86 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

mandment, with His Royal Declaration prefixed 
thereunto. 

*^ HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION. 

*^ Being by God's Ordinance, according to our 
just Title, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme 
Governor of the Church within these our Domin- 
ions, we hold it most agreeable to this our Kingly 
Office, and our own religious zeal, to conserve and 
maintain the Church committed to our charge, in 
Unity of true Religion, and in the bond of Peace ; 
and not to suffer unnecessary Disputations, Alter- 
cations, or questions to be raised, which may 
nourish Faction both in the Church and Common- 
wealth. We have therefore, upon mature Deliber- 
ation, and with the advice of so many of our 
Bishops as might conveniently be called together, 
thought fit to make this Declaration following: 

*^ That the Articles of the Church of England 
(which have been allowed and authorized hereto- 
fore, and which our clergy generally have sub- 
scribed unto), do contain the true doctrine of the 
Church of England, agreeable to God's Word ; 
which we do therefore ratify and confirm, requir- 
ing all our loving subjects to continue in the uni- 
form profession thereof, and prohibiting the least 
difference from the said Articles ; which to that 
end, we command to be new printed, and this our 
Declaration to be published therewith. 

'' That we are supreme Governour of the Church 
of England ; and that if any difference arise about 
the external Policy concerning the Injunctions, 
Canons, and other constitutions whatsoever 
thereto belonging, the Clergy, in their Convoca- 
tion, is to order and settle them, having first 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 8/ 

obtained leave under our Broad Seal so to do ; 
and we approving their said Ordinances and Con- 
stitutions ; providing that none be made contrary 
to the Laws and Customs of the Land. 

" That out of our princely Care, that the Church- 
men may do the work which is proper unto them, 
the Bishops and the Clergy, from time to time in 
Convocation, upon their humble desire, shall have 
License under our Broad Seal to deliberate of, 
and to do all such things as, being made plain by 
them, and assented unto by us, shall concern the 
settled Continuance of the Doctrine and Disci- 
pline of the Church of England now established ; 
from which we will not endure any varying or 
departing in the least Degree. 

** That for the present, though some differences 
have been ill raised, yet we take comfort in this, 
that all Clergymen within our realm, have always 
most willingly subscribed to the Articles estab- 
lished ; which is an argument to us, that they all 
agree in the true, usual, literal meaning of the said 
Articles ; and that even in those curious points, 
in which the present differences lie, men of all 
sorts take the Articles of the Church of England 
to be for them ; which is an argument again, that 
none of them intend any desertion of the Articles 
established. 

" That therefore in these both curious and un- 
happy differences, which have for so many years, 
in different times and places, exercised the Church 
of Christ, we will that all further curious search 
be laid aside, and these disputes shut up in God's 
promises, as they be generally set forth to us in 
the holy Scriptures, and in the general meaning 
of the Articles of the Church of England accord- 
ing to them. And that no man hereafter shall 



88 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

either print, or preach, to draw the Article aside 
any way, but shall submit to it in the plain and 
full meaning thereof ; and shall not put his own 
sense or comment to be the meaning of the Ar- 
ticle, but shall take it in the literal and grammati- 
cal sense. 

** That if any publick reader in either of our 
Universities, or any Head or Master of a College, 
or any other person respectively in either of them, 
shall affix any new sense to any Article, or shall 
publickly read, determine or hold any publick 
Disputation, or suffer any such to be held either 
way, in either the Universities or Colleges respec- 
tively ; or if any divine in the Universities shall 
preach or print anything either way, other than is 
already established in Convocation with our Royal 
assent ; he, or they the offenders, shall be liable 
to our displeasure, and the Church's censure in 
our Commission Ecclesiastical, as well as any 
other; and w^e will see there shall be due execu- 
tion upon them.*' 

^^ ARTICLES OF RELIGION." 

I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. 

" There is but one living and true God, ever- 
lasting without body, parts or passions ; of in- 
finite power, wisdom and goodness ; the Maker 
and preserver of all things both visible and in- 
visible. And in Unity of this Godhead there be 
three persons, of one substance, power and eter- 
nity ; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

II. Of the Word or Son of God, which 

WAS MADE VERY MaN. 

The Son, which is the Word of the Father, 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 89 

begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very 
and eternal God, and of one substance with the 
Father, took Man's nature in the womb of the 
blessed Virgin, of her substance ; so that two 
whole perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead 
and Manhood, were joined together in one Per- 
son, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, 
very God and very Man ; who truly suffered, was 
crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his Father 
to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original 
guilt, but also for all actual sins of men. 

III. Of THE Going down of Christ into 

Hell. 

As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is 
it to be believed, that he went down into Hell. 

IV. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 

Christ did truly rise again from death, and took 
again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things 
appertaining to the perfection of Man's nature, 
wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there 
sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last 
day. 

V. Of the Holy Ghost. 

The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father 
and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and 
glory with the Father, and the Son, very and 
eternal God. 

VI. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scrip- 
tures for Salvation. 

Holy Scriptures containeth all things necessary 
to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read 



90 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be 
required of any man, that it should be believed 
as ?.n article of the Faith or be thought requisite 
or necessary to salvation. In the name of the 
Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical 
Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose 
authority was never any doubt in the Church. 

Of the Names and Number of the Canonical 
Books. 

Genesis, 

Exodus, 

Leviticus, 

Numbers, 

Deuteronomy, 

Joshua, 

Judges, 

Ruth, 

The First Book of Samuel, 

The Second Book of Samuel, 

The First Book of Kings, 

The Second Book of Kings, 

The First Book of Chronicles, 

The Second Book of Chronicles, 

The First Book of Esdras, 

The Second Book of Esdras, 

The Book of Esther, 

The Book of Job, 

The Psalms, 

The Proverbs, 

Ecclesiastes or Preacher, 

Cantica, or Songs of Solomon, 

Four Prophets the greater, 

Twelve Prophets the less. 

And the other Books (as Hieromes saith) the 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 9 1 

Church doth read for example of life and instruc- 
tion of manners ; but yet doth it not apply them 
to establish any doctrine ; such are these following : 

The Third Book of Esdras, 

The Fourth Book of Esdras, 

The Book of Tobias, 

The Book of Judith, 

The rest of the Book of Esther, 

The Book of Wisdom, 

Jesus the Son of Sirach, 

Baruch the Prophet, 

The Song of the Three Children, 

The Story of Susanna, 

Of Bel and the Dragon, 

The Prayer of Manasses, 

The First Book of Maccabees, 

The Second Book of Maccabees. 

All the Books of the New Testament, as they 
are commonly received, we do receive, and account 
them Canonical. 

VII. Of the Old Testament. 

The Old Testament is not contrary to the New ; 
for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting 
life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the 
only Mediator between God and Man, being both 
God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be 
heard, which feign that the old Fathers did look 
only for transitory promises. Although the Law 
given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies 
and rites, does not bind Christian men, nor the 
Civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be re- 
ceived in any commonwealth ; yet notwithstanding 
no Christian man whatsoever is free from the 



92 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

obedience of the Commandments which are called 
Moral. 

VIII. Of THE Three Creeds. 

The Three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius's 
Creed, and that which is commonly called the 
Apostles* Creed, ought thoroughly to be received 
and believed ; for they may be proved by most 
certain warrants of Holy Scripture. 

IX. Of Original or Birth-sin. 

Original sin standeth not in the following of 
Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) ; but it is 
the fault and corruption of the nature of every 
man, that naturally is ingendered of the offspring 
of Adam ; whereby man is very far gone from 
original righteousness, and is of his own nature 
inclined to evil ; so that the flesh lusteth always 
contrary to the spirit ; and therefore in every 
person born into this world, it deserveth God's 
wrath and damnation. And this infection of 
nature doth remain, yea in them that are regen- 
erated ; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the 
Greek, phronema sarkos, which some do expound 
the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, 
some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject to the 
law of God. And although there is no condemna- 
tion for them that believe and are baptized, yet 
the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and 
lust hath of itself the nature of sin. 

X. Of Free Will. 

The condition of man after the fall of Adam is 
such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 93 

his own natural strength and good works, to faith 
and calling upon God ; wherefore we have no 
power to do good works pleasant and acceptable 
to God, without the grace of God by Christ pre- 
venting us, that we may have a good will, and 
working with us, when we have that good will. 

XI. Of THE Justification of Man. 

We are accounted righteous before God, only 
for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
by Faith, and not for our own works or deserv- 
ings ; wherefore that we are justified by Faith only 
is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of 
comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily 
of Justification. 

XII. Of Good Works. 

Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits 
of Faith, and follow after justification, cannot put 
away our sins, and endure the severity of God's 
judgment ; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to 
God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a 
true and lively faith ; insomuch that by them a 
lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree 
discerned by the fruit. 

XIII. Of Works Before Justification. 

Works done before the grace of Christ, and the 
Inspiration of his spirit, are not pleasant to God, 
for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus 
Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive 
grace, or (as the School authors say) deserve grace 
of congruity ; yea rather, for that they are not 



94 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

done as God hath willed and commanded them to 
be done, we doubt not but they have the nature 
of sin. 

XIV. Of Works of Supererogation. 

Voluntary Works besides, over and above God's 
commandments, which they call works of super- 
erogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and 
impiety ; for by them men do declare, that they 
do not only render unto God as much as they 
are bound to do, but that they do more for his 
sake, than of bounden duty is required ; whereas 
Christ saith plainly when ye have done all that 
are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable 
servants. 

XV. Of Christ Alone Without Sin. 

Christ in the truth of our nature was made like 
unto us in all things, sin only excepted, from which 
he was clearly void, both in his flesh and in his 
spirit. He came to be the lamb without spot, 
who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should take 
away the sins of the world, and sin, as St. John 
saith, was not in him. But all we the rest, al- 
though baptized and born again in Christ, yet 
offend in many things ; and if we say we have no 
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 

XVI. Of Sin After Baptism. 

Not every deadly sin willingly committed after 
baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and un- 
pardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance 
is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 95 

Baptism. After we have received the Holy 
Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall 
into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise 
again, and amend our lives. And therefore they 
are to be condemned, which say they can no more 
sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of 
forgiveness to such as truly repent. 

XVII. Of Predestination and Election. 

Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose 
of God, whereby (before the foundations of the 
world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by 
his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and 
damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ 
out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to 
everlasting salvation as vessels made to honor. 
Wherefore, they which be endued with so excel- 
lent a benefit of God, be called according to God's 
purpose by his Spirit working in due season ; 
they through grace obey the calling : they be 
justified freely : they be made sons of God by 
adoption : they be made like the image of his only 
begotten Son, Jesus Christ: they walk religiously, 
in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they 
attain to everlasting felicity. 

As the godly consideration of predestination, 
and our election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleas- 
ant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons 
and such as feel in themselves the working of the 
Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, 
and their earthly members, and drawing up their 
mind to high and heavenly things, as well because 
it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of 
eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as 
because it doth fervently kindle their love toward 



96 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

God : So, for curious and carnal persons lacking the 
spirit of Christ to have continually before their 
eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a 
most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth 
thrust them either into desperation or into wretch- 
edness of most unclean living, no less perilous 
than desperation. 

Furthermore we must receive God's promises in 
such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in 
Holy Scripture : And, in our doings, that Will 
of God is to be followed, which w^e have expressly 
declared unto us in the Word of God. 

XVIII. Of Obtaining Eternal Salvation 

ONLY BY THE NaME OF CHRIST. 

They also are to be had accursed, that presume 
to say, That every man shall be saved by the law 
or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent 
to frame his life according to that law, and the 
light of nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out 
unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby 
men must be saved. 

XIX. Of the Church. 

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation 
of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is 
preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered 
according to Christ's ordinance in all those things 
that of necessity are requisite to the same. 

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and 
Antioch have erred ; so also the Church of Rome 
hath erred, not only in their living and manner of 
ceremony, but also in matters of faith. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 9/ 

XX. Of THE Authority of the Church. 

The Church hath power to decree Rites or 
Ceremonies, and authority in controversies of 
Faith : and yet it is not lawful for the Church to 
ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word 
written, neither may it so expound one place of 
Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. 
Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and 
keeper of holy Writ, yet as it ought not to decree 
anything against the same, so besides the same 
ought it not to enforce anything to be believed 
for necessity of salvation. 

XXI. Of the Authority of General 
Councils. 

General Councils may not be gathered together 
without the commandment and will of princes. 
And when they be gathered together (for as much 
as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not 
governed with the spirit and word of God) they 
may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things 
pertaining unto God. Wherefore, things ordained 
by them as necessary to salvation have neither 
strength nor authority, unless it may be declared 
that they be taken out of Holy Scripture. 

XXII. Of Purgatory. 

The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory, 
Pardons, Worshiping and Adoration as well of 
Images, as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, 
is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded 
upon no warranty of scripture, but rather repug. 
nant to the Word of God. 
7 



98 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

XXIII. Of Ministering in the Congrega- 

tion. 

It IS not lawful for any man to take upon him 
the office of public preaching, or ministering the 
sacraments in the congregation, before he be law- 
fully called, and sent to execute the same. And 
those we ought to judge lawfully, called and sent, 
which be chosen and called to this work by men 
who have public authority given unto them in the 
congregation to call and send ministers into the 
Lord's vineyard. 

XXIV. Of Speaking in the Congregation 
IN SUCH A Tongue as the People Under- 

STANDETH. 

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of 
God, and the custom of the primitive church, to 
have public prayer in the church, or to minister 
the sacraments in a tongue not understanded of 
the people. 

XXV. Of the Sacraments. 

Sacraments ordained of Christ, be not only 
badges or tokens of Christian men's profession^ but 
rather they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual 
signs of grace, and God's good will toward us, by 
the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth 
not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm 
our faith in him. There are two sacraments or- 
dained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to 
say. Baptism, and the supper of the Lord. Those 
five commonly called sacraments, that is to say 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 99 

Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and 
Extreme Unction, are not to be counted for 
sacraments of the gospel being such as have 
grown partly of the corrupt following of the 
Apostles, partly our states of life allowed in the 
scriptures ; but yet have not like nature of sacra- 
ments with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for 
that they have not any visible sign or ceremony 
ordained of God. The sacraments were not or- 
dained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried 
about, but that we should duly use them. And 
in such only as worthily receive the same, they 
have a wholesome effect or operation : but they 
that receive them unworthily, purchase to them- 
selves damnation, as Saint Paul saith. 

XXVI. Of THE Unworthiness of the 
Ministers which Hinders not the Ef- 
fect OF THE Sacrament. 

Although in the visible church, the evil be ever 
mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil 
have chief authority in the ministration of the 
Word and Sacraments, yet, for as much as they 
do not the same in their own name but in Christ's, 
and do minister by his commission and authority, 
we may use their ministry both in hearing the 
Word of God and in receiving of the sacrament. 
Neither is the effect of Christ's ordinance taken 
away by their wickedness nor the grace of God's 
gifts diminished from such as by faith, and rightly, 
do receive the sacrament ministered unto them ; 
which be effectual because of Christ's institution 
and promise, although they be ministered by evil 
men. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the disci- 



lOO CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

pline of the Church that inquiry be made of evil 
ministers, and that they be accused by those that 
have knowledge of their offenses; and finally, 
being found guilty, by just judgment be deposed. 

XXVII. Of Baptism. 

Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and 
mark of difference, whereby Christian men are 
discerned from others that be not christened, but 
it is also a sign of Regeneration or new Birth, 
whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive 
Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church ; the 
promises of forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption 
to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are 
visibly signed and sealed ; faith is confirmed and 
grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God. 
The baptism of young children is in any wise to 
be retained in the Church as most agreeable with 
the institution of Christ. 

XXVIII. Of the Lord's Supper. 

The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of 
the love that Christians ought to have among 
themselves one to another, but rather is a sacra- 
ment of our redemption by Christ's death ; inso- 
much that to such as rightly, worthily, and with 
faith receive the same, the bread which we break 
is a partaking of the Body of Christ ; and likewise 
the cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of 
Christ. Transubstantiation (or the change of the 
substance of the bread and wine) in the Supper of 
the Lord cannot be proved by holy writ ; but is 
repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, over- 
throweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. lOI 

given occasion to many susperstitions. The Body 
of Christ is given, taken and eaten, in the Supper, 
only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And 
the means whereby the Body of Christ is received 
and eaten in the Supper is faith. The Sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordi- 
nance reserved, carried about, lifted up or wor- 
shiped. 

XXIX. Of THE Wicked Which Eat Not the 
Body of Christ in the Use of the Lord's 
Supper. 

The wicked and such as be void of a lively 
faith, although they do carnally and visibly press 
with their teeth (as Saint Augustine saith) the 
Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, yet 
in no wise are they partakers of Christ ; but rather, 
to their condemnation do eat and drink the sign 
or Sacrament of so great a thing. 

XXX. Of Both Kinds. 

The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the 
lay-people ; for both the parts of the Lord's Sacra- 
ment, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, 
ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike. 

XXXL Of the One Oblation of Christ 
Finished upon the Cross. 

The offering of Christ once made is that perfect 
redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all 
the sins of the whole world, both original and 
actual ; and there is none other satisfaction for 
sin, but that alone, wherefore, the sacrifices of 



I02 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

masses, in the which it was commonly said that 
the priest did offer Christ for the quick and the 
dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were 
blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits. 

XXXII. Of the Marriage of Priests. 

Bishops, priests, and deacons are not com- 
manded by God's laws either to vow the estate of 
single life, or to abstain from marriage : therefore, 
it is lawful for them, as for all other Christian 
men, to marry at their own discretion, as they 
shall judge the same to serve better to Godliness. 

XXXIII. Of Excommunicate Persons, How 
They Are to be Avoided. 

That person which by open denunciation of 
the Church, is rightly cut off from the unity of 
the Church, and excommunicated or to be taken 
of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an 
heathen and publican, until he be openly recon- 
ciled by penance, and received into the Church by 
a judge that hath authority thereunto. 

XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church. 

It is not necessary that traditions and ceremo- 
nies be in all places one, and utterly like ; for at 
all times they have been divers, and may be 
changed according to the diversities of countries, 
times and men's manners, so that nothing be or- 
dained against God's Word. Whosoever through 
his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth 
openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the 
Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. IO3 

God and be ordained and approved by common 
authority, ought to be rebuked openly (that others 
may fear to do the like) as he that offendeth 
against the common order of the Church and 
hurteth the authority of the magistrate and 
woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren. 
Every particular or national Church hath author- 
ity to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or 
rites of the Church ordained only by man's author- 
ity, so that all things be done to edifying. 

XXXV. Of THE Homilies. 

The second Book of Homilies, the several titles 
whereof we have joined under this Article, doth 
contain a Godly and wholesome Doctrine, and 
necessary for these times, as doth the former Book 
of Homilies, which were set forth in the time of 
Edward the Sixth ; and therefore we judge them 
to be read in churches by the Ministers, diligently 
and distinctly, that they may be understanded of 
the people. 

Of the Names of the Homilies. 

1. Of the right Use of the Church. 

2. Against Peril of Idolatry. 

3. Of repairing and keeping clean the Churches. 

4. Of good Works : first of Fasting. 

5. Against Gluttony and Drunkenness. 

6. Against Excess of Apparel. 

7. Of Prayer. 

8. Of the Place and Time of Prayer. 

9. That Common Prayers and Sacraments 

ought to be ministered in a known tongue. 

10. Of the reverend estimation of God's Word. 

11. Of Alms-doing. 



I04 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

12. Of the Nativity of Christ. 

13. Of the Passion of Christ. 

14. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 

15. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament 

of the Body and Blood of Christ. 

16. Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. 

17. For the Rogation-days. 

18. Of the State of Matrimony. 

19. Of Repentance. 

20. Against Idleness. 

21. Against Rebellion. 

XXXVI. Of Consecration of Bishops and 
Ministers. 

The Book of Consecration of Archbishops and 
Bishops, and Ordering of Priests and Deacons, 
lately set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth, 
and confirmed at the same time by authority of 
Parliament, doth contain all things necessary to 
such Consecration and Ordering ; neither hath it 
anything, that of itself is superstitious and un- 
godly. And therefore whosoever are consecrated, 
or ordered, according to the Rites of that Book, 
since the second year of the forenamed King Ed- 
ward unto this time, or hereafter, shall be conse- 
crated or ordered according to the same Rites ; 
we decree all such to be rightly, orderly, and law- 
fully consecrated and ordered. 

XXXVII. Of the Civil Magistrates. 

The Queen^s Majesty hath the chief power in 
this Realm of England, and her other Dominions, 
unto whom the chief Government of all Estates 
of this Realm, whether they be Ecclesiastical or 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. lOg 

Civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not, nor 
ought to be, subject to any foreign Jurisdiction. 
Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the 
chief government, by which Titles we understand 
the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended ; 
we give not to our Princes the ministering either 
of God's Word, or of the Sacraments, the which 
thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by 
Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify ; but 
that only prerogative, which we see to have been 
given always to all godly Princes in holy Scrip- 
tures by God himself ; that is, that they should rule 
all states and degrees committed to their charge 
by God, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Tem- 
poral, and restrain with the civil sword the stub- 
born and evil-doers. The Bishop of Rome hath 
no jurisdiction in this Realm of England. The 
Laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with 
death, for heinous and grievous offenses. It is 
lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of 
the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve in the 
wars. 

XXXVIII. Of Christian Men's Goods, 
WHICH ARE Not Common. 

The Riches and Goods of Christians are not 
common, as touching the right, title and posses- 
sion of the same, as certain Anabaptists do falsely 
boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of 
such things as he possesseth, liberally to give alms 
to the poor, according to his ability. 

XXXIX. Of a Christian Man's Oath. 

As we confess that vain and rash Swearing is 
forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus 



Io6 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

Christ, and James his Apostle, so we judge, that 
Christian Religion doth not prohibit, but that a 
man may swear when +-he Magistrate requireth, in 
a cause of faith and charity, so it be done accord- 
ing to the Prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment 
and truth." 

It will be noticed that Article XVII. especially 
sets forth the doctrine of predestination, whereby 
** before the foundations of the world were laid,** 
God selected and chose those who should be 
saved. 

Episcopalians generally disclaim this doctrine, 
in fact but a small percentage of them have read 
it, or even know of its existence in the ^' Articles.*' 

Originally there were forty-two of these Arti- 
cles and they were adopted in England in 1 553. 
Ten years later they were reduced to their present 
number and form, and every clergyman in the 
English Church is required to subscribe to them his 
declaration of consent ! 

As with the details of the creeds. Episcopalians 
take great latitude as to the extent to which they 
believe the Articles. 

In like manner they have a prayer (The Abso- 
lution or Remission of sins). 

'' Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
*^ Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, 
*' but rather that he may turn from his wickedness, 
'^ and live ; and hath given power ^ and command- 
** ment, to his ministers, to declare and pronounce 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. lO/ 

''to his people, being penitent, the Absolutioii 
^'' and Remission of their sins. He pardoneth and 
*' absolveth all them that truly repent, and un- 
'' feignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore 
''let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, 
" and his holy Spirit, that those things may please 
" him, which we do at this present ; and that the 
" rest of our life hereafter may be pure, and holy ; 
" so that at the last we may come to his eternal 
"joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen/' 

It thus says that God has e^npowered his min- 
isters to declare when sins are forgiven. 

This is much like the Catholic form, from which 
it is patterned. Of course there is no evidence 
whatever of the giving of such power or authority, 
except in the teachings of the " fathers.'* 

To an unprejudiced mind, it seems strange and 
inconsistent, that so many unbelieved, or half- 
believed, tenets are retained. 

They are mockeries of sincerity. The New 
York Sun of Feb. 9, 1900, has the following item 
on its Editorial page. It bears so directly on 
what I have just been writing that I copy it in 
full : 

New York Sun, Feb. 9, 1900. 

An Awful Sin. 

" Prof. St. George Mivart, in refusing to 
sign the profession of faith submitted to him by 
Cardinal Vaughan, with mental reservations 
which would pratically nullify it, has set an ex- 



I08 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

ample of honesty which might well bring the 
blush of shame to many theologians who are now 
outwardly professing a faith which inwardly they 
deny. 

*^ Speaking of the clause in the confession re- 
quiring him to assent to the dogma that the 
Scriptures not merely * contain revelation with 
which there is no mixture of error,' but also, 

* having been written by the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, they have GOD as their author and 
have been delivered to the Church as such/ he 
tells the Cardinal : 

** * It would be easy, of course, by a little dex- 

* terity, to distort and evade what appears to be 

* its real and obvious meaning. As GOD is the 

* First Cause and Creator of all things, He is, in 
^that sense, their Author; Author of the Decam- 
' eron of BOCCACCIO, as well as of the Bible. 

* But to make a profession with such a meaning 

* would be, in my eyes, grossly profane and al- 

* together unjustifiable.' 

'' Many recent Biblical critics, however, have 
had no such scruples of conscience. They have 
continued to profess adhesion to standards of faith, 
the Westminster Confession, for example, ^ by a 
little dexterity ' or trickery of the sort which 
Prof. St. George Mivart, an honest man, draws 
back from in horror as * grossly profane and 
altogether unjustifiable.' Of course, as he says, 
God as the Author of all things may be called the 
Author of everything written, but, as all men 
know, that is not the sense in which these stan- 
dards describe the authorship of the Bible as the 
Word of God, and to accept them with any such 
reservation or any reservation in the mind is 
flagrantly dishonest and deceitful. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. IO9 

*^Most of all is honesty, is sincerity, is absolute 
straightforwardness requisite in dealing with the 
living God whom a man professes to fear and 
w^orship. If he is an infidel, if he doubts, if he 
cannot reconcile and submit his reason to a con- 
fession of faith exacted of him, or in any way 
rejects it in its plain and literal sense, he is a blas- 
phemous liar when he pretends to accept it as a 
condition of remaining in a ministry solemnly 
pledged to sustain and teach it. Moreover, he is 
a coward, a humbug, a time server, a seller of his 
soul for a mess of pottage, false both to religion 
and to reason. With that awful sin Prof. St. 
George Mivart is not willing to load his con- 
science." 



Periodically, the bishops of the Episcopal 
Church hold a council at a place in England called 
Lambeth — a suburb of London. The subjects 
which are under consideration are of such extra- 
ordinary and momentous importance, that the 
sessions are held behind closed doors ; the laity 
may hardly be trusted with such weighty matters. 
Possibly they may some day mitigate the incon- 
sistencies of the prayer book, which have little, if 
anything, more than relic value. While such an 
act would be likely to meet with the approval of 
the greater proportion of their Church members, 
there are those who would be horrified by what 
they would consider such a dreadful desecration. 
Among them are many divines (!) who are pest- 
ered with the nineteenth century, and prefer the 



no CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

dark ages or — quite the same thing — the teachings 
of those who lived in those serene centuries. 

Fashion and wealth in this country gravitate 
toward the Episcopal Church more than toward 
any other. 

PRESBYTERIANISM. 

Many Episcopalians are fond of referring to 
Presbyterians as being very narrow in their re- 
ligious views. Judged by their books, there is 
very little difference between them. It is much 
like the little boy who reported to his father that 
his brother had his eyes open during prayers. 

There is, however, this dissimilarity. The Epis- 
copalian serenely reads his creed and his liturgy, 
and believes as much or as little of it as he 
pleases. For example, few of them believe in the 
resurrection of the body ; many doubt the immac- 
ulate conception ; and yet they repeat these things 
every time they attend church, excusing them- 
selves in various ways for apparent insincerity. 

The Presbyterian, on the other hand, usually 
stands up for his creed and his confession of faith, 
and he will tell you, in fact seems to have made 
himself believe, that there is entire harmony be- 
tween the doctrine of fore-ordination and free- 
will ; that God knows exactly what a man is 
going to do in every detail of his earthly exist- 
ence, and yet the man is free to do as he wills ! 

Illogical and impossible though such doctrine 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. Ill 

may be, the Presbyterian who defends it is less 
inconsistent than his Episcopal brother who 
excuses rather than defends his dogmas, who 
dodges and evades the question. 

The main beliefs of all orthodox Protestant 
Churches are substantially alike. A few years 
ago all were equally rigid, while to-day all have 
modified the severity of their teachings. 

The constitution of the Presbyterian Church is 
embodied in their Confession of Faith. This was 
adopted in this country in 1729, but has several 
times been slightly amended. It sets forth a 
belief in the Holy Scriptures. Of these it says: 

^^ The authority of the Holy Scripture, for 
which it ought to be believed and obeyed, de- 
pendeth not upon the testimony of any man or 
church, but wholly upon God, the author thereof ; 
and therefore it is to be received, because it is the 
Word of God. 

" There is but one living and true God, who is 
infinite in being and perfection, a most pure 
spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, 
immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, 
almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most 
absolute, working all things according to the 
counsel of his own immutable and most righteous 
will, for his own glory ; most loving, gracious, 
merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and 
truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin ; 
the rewarder of them that diligently seek him ; 
and withal most just and terrible in his judg- 
ments, hating all sin, and who will by no means 
clear the guilty. 



112 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

^^ In the Unity of the Godhead there be three 
persons of one substance, power and eternity ; 
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten 
nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of 
the Father ; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding 
from the Father and the Son. 

^* Although God knows whatsoever may or can 
come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet 
hath he not decreed anything because he foresaw 
it as future, or as that which would come to pass 
upon such conditions. {Rather obsaire,) 

^' By the decree of God, for the manifestation 
of his glory, some men and angels are predes- 
tinated unto everlasting life, and others fore- 
ordained to everlasting death. 

*^ These angels and men, thus predestinated and 
fore-ordained, are particularly and unchangeably 
designed ; and their number is so certain and 
definite that it cannot be either increased or 
diminished. 

" God hath appointed the elect unto glory. 

** The rest of mankind God was pleased, accord- 
ing to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, 
whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as 
he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power 
over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them 
to dishonor and wrath for their sin to the praise 
of his glorious justice.'* 

It seems incomprehensible that intelligent and 
educated men can, in these days, teach or believe 
in such doctrine, can ascribe to a loving God such 
elements of injustice and savage cruelty. 

** It pleased God ... to create or make of 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. II3 

nothing, the world and all things therein, whether 
visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and 
all very good. 

'' God in his ordinary providence maketh use of 
means, yet is free to work without, above, and 
against them, at his pleasure. 

" Elect infants, dying in infancy, are saved by 
Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when and 
where and how he pleaseth/' 



These are only a few extracts from the " Con- 
fession of Faith." There are chapters on — 

'' God's Covenant with Man," '' Free Will,^' 
" Effectual Calling," '' Justification," ^^ Adoption," 
'* Sanctification," and '' Saving Faith." These 
doctrines and dogmas are so shrouded and ob- 
scured in mystery and ambiguity, so inconsistent 
with the teachings of Jesus that God is Love, so 
entirely out of harmony with the intelligence and 
reason with which the Creator has endowed us, 
that they are only as '' sounding brass^ or tinkling 
cymbals." 

Perfect harmony does not prevail in the Presby- 
terian denomination. They have the liberals who 
are demanding the '' why " in relation to the un- 
provable inventions that are embodied in the 
doctrines of the Church. They have the conserv- 
atives who not only fail to answer the '* whys," 
but deny the right of their brethren to question 
the propriety of what has been the doctrine of 
the Church, mostly as handed down by Calvin. 
8 



114 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

John Calvin lived during the times of the Ref- 
ormation and was to a certain extent a co-worker 
with Luther against the assumptions of the Church 
of Rome. Though very ready to condemn the 
Catholics for their teachings and beliefs, he was 
himself narrow and bigoted. A man of great 
ability and learning, he was an extreme fanatic. 
Here is an incident illustrative of his character. 
Michael Ser\^etus, an eminent physician, was also 
a reformer, but held anti-trinitarian views. At 
one time he and Calvin were friends. Later they 
corresponded on doctrinal points, Calvin endeavor- 
ing to correct the errors of his friend and to '^ set 
him right,'' but failing therein. Servetus, in 1553, 
visited Calvin at Geneva. The latter caused his 
arrest and trial for heresy. He zuas condent7ied 
and burned at tlie stake I 

In this course, Calvin undoubtedly believed he 
was serving God ! To such a savage crime may 
a man be brought by fanaticism and bigotry ! 

A Presbyterian lady said to me that ^' the death 
of Servetus was a great trial to Calvin ! '' — A great 
trial indeed ! In the name of humanity, of 
what consequence v/as it to the tortured Servetus, 
or to the world, whether Calvin danced around 
the blazing fire or driveled in the background ? 
Had he possessed the true spirit of religion, he 
would — at the last moment — have scattered the 
fagots he himself had kindled. But, blinded by 
bigotry, Calvin was insensible to the religion of 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. II 5 

Jesus, kindness toward his fellow men ! Creed 
and doctrine and dogma were his idols, images 
which obscured from his vision or understand- 
ing the only true God ! Calvin was a creature 
of his times and surroundings. In these days 
he would not be tolerated in any enlightened 
land. How is it, then, that people who would 
condemn him now can revere him and his theories 
because he lived in the dark ages ? Does it not 
look like admiring savage cruelty at a distance ? 
** A great trial '' indeed ! 

Poor Calvin. He is entitled to pity on account 
of the darkness in which he lived. I can appreciate 
something of this. But when I endeavor to 
comprehend how in these enlightened days, peo- 
ple can be found who will mix his teaching with 
the doctrines of the " fathers '' and then swallow 
the whole dose, — when I try to understand this 
I must confess myself a dismal failure. It is too 
much for me. 

In the Presbyterian Catechism, the Godhead is 
thus described : '* There are three persons in 
the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost ; These three are one God ; the same in 
substance ; equal in power and glory.'* 

This agrees with the Creeds. Jesus however 
said — The Father is greater than I ! ( John xiv. 
28). It necessarily follows, that if the Creeds 
are correct, Jesus must have been under a wrong 
impression. 



Il6 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

The conservatives among Presbyterians are in 
control, and they are driving from their member- 
ship some of their most intelligent thinkers and 
brightest minds. With them the verdict is, that 
to think, or to suspect a possibility of error in the 
doctrines, is a crime. 

The membership of this Church is not increas- 
ing in this country at present. Why is this ? And 
this question is a serious one for the Presbyterian 
Church. I will confine myself to asking a few 
questions ; the reader may supply the answers. 
Is not the Church really suffering from excessive 
theology ? In the Westminster Confession of 
Faith, has she not more of a load than she is able 
to carry ? Does not the intelligence of the Church 
KNOW that it is full of absurdities? Is it 
not true that her ministers are required to teach 
doctrines, with which the ablest of them are 
not in earnest sympathy ? Is it not true that 
those of their members who are supposed to ac- 
cept and believe the whole long list of dogmas 
and doctrines are people who give their meaning 
very little serious or earnest thought ? Are they 
not driving from their pulpits some of their bright- 
est minds, and throttling others with the grip of 
orthodoxy ? 

METHODISM. 

This sect is very numerous in the United 
States. Originating in England, it was founded 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 11/ 

principally by John Wesley about the year 1740. 
It has, however, flourished more in America than 
in the mother country. 

The beliefs of Methodists may be found in their 
church book, known as '^ The Discipline.'* They 
are trinitarians ; believe in the fall of man from 
original holiness and in the atonement, and they 
use the Apostles' Creed, except that they omit 
the sentence, '' He descended into Hell." 

Their church government is episcopal in form, 
having annual conferences which are presided over 
by a bishop, who is elected by the General Con- 
ference which is held every four years. The Bish- 
op and Elders of districts of the conference ap- 
point and decide where the ministers shall be' 
located. 

Methodists are often very emotional, but are 
full of earnestness and diligent in church work. 

They are eminent as pioneers in our newly 
settled regions, and wherever they are found, their 
aims and influence are uplifting and useful. 

THE BAPTIST FAITH. 

The '^Declaration of Faith*' in the Baptist 
Manual sets forth : 

I. ^* The Old and New Testament Scriptures 
were written by men divinely inspired, and are 
the only sufficient and perfect rule of faith and 
practise. 



Il8 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

2. *' There is one God, and only one, who is 
self-existent, eternal, and infinite in every excel- 
lence, and who has revealed himself as Father, the 
Son, and Holy Ghost, the same in essence, though 
distinct in personality. 

3. " Man was created innocent. By disobedi- 
ence of the command of God he fell, thereby losing 
his innocence, becoming subject to death, and to 
the eternal displeasure of God. 

4. *' Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son 
of Man, came into the world to save men from 
the guilt and condemnation of sin, offering his 
blood as an atonement, and making it available 
to all who exercise faith in him.'* 

Of Baptism the Manual says : *^ Baptism, as a 
symbolic act, must in its form be definite and un- 
varying. The only baptism that can represent a 
burial and resurrection is immersion, whereby the 
whole body is laid beneath the water and raised 
therefrom.*' 

In a spirit of liberality the Manual says : '^ Dif- 
ferences of opinion on many doctrines and dif- 
ferences of interpretation of many passages of 
Scripture are natural and admissible.'* 

Baptists have existed for many centuries, per- 
haps since the earliest dates of the Christian era, 
though not under their present name. They are 
numerous in Europe where, in olden times, they 
were sometimes persecuted and outlawed. In the 
United States they number nearly four millions. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. II9 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 

Congregationalists are so named from their 
system of church government, which is vested in 
each individual church. They are subject to no 
bishop, synod, assembly, or conference. Natu- 
rally this gives them great independence, not only 
as to church management, but also in matters of 
creed and thought. 

In some of their churches the Apostles' Creed 
is used, as the preference of its members may de- 
termine. 

On the whole, Congregationalists incline to- 
ward trinitarian rather than toward unitarian 
views. Many of their members, however, hold 
unitarian beliefs, and against this there is no pro- 
test. Full liberty is permitted and respected. 



"^ UNITARIANISM. 



From Congregationalism to Unitarianisni is an 
easy step. A step upward toward the light, a 
step in the transit from mystery, doubt, and com- 
plexity toward that which is at once scriptural, 
reasonable, and possible. 

The best religious thought of the world is con- 
centrating in a belief in One omniscient, all per- 
vading, omnipresent GOD. Whittier realizes this 
when he writes : — 



I20 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

" Oh, sometimes gleams upon our sight, 
Through present wrong, the eternal Right; 
And step by step, since time began, 
We see the steady gain of man. 

« That all of good the past hath had 
Remains to make our own time glad, 
Our common, daily life divine, 
And every land a Palestine, 

" Through the harsh noises of our day, 
A low sweet prelude finds its way ; 
Through clouds of doubt, and creeds of fear, 
A light is breaking, calm and clear. 

" Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
For olden time and holier shore ; 
God's love and blessing then and there, 
Are now, and here, and everywhere." 



There exists nowhere a better or truer example 
of inspiration than this. 

The Unitarian belief may be said to have always 
existed. In all ages of which we have any ac- 
count, there have been men who believed in one 
creating and governing cause, one God. 

The Jews are, and always have been. Unitarians. 
How was it with the earliest Christians ? Is there 
anybody who believes that Jesus was a trinita- 
rian ? Did He ever say one word respecting it ? 
Did He at any time define or attempt to define 
what trinitarians are pleased to call the Godhead ? 
Did either Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 121 

say that '* the Father is God, the Son is God, and 
the Holy Ghost is God '' ? Three of these were 
with Him through most of His ministry. If they 
were taught that He was God, or if they looked 
upon Him as God, it is incredible that they 
should not have mentioned it. Yet from their 
direct intercourse and association with Him, they 
must have known how He regarded Himself. 

The fact is plain and apparent, and that with- 
out deep research or theological aid, that neither 
Jesus nor His Apostles were any more trinitarians 
than were the Jews among whom they lived. 
They were Unitarians, as were all of the early 
Christians. Jesus repeatedly spoke of God, as 
" My Father,*' " Your Father,'' '' Our Father ; " 
always as one, never of that man-made incon- 
gruity, the trinitarian Godhead. 

If one will but read the letters of Paul, no 
mention of the trinity, or anything like it, from 
beginning to end will be found. 

Nor, it may be added, does he even allude 
to His virgin birth nor to the resurrection of His 
physical body ! It is fair to inquire. Did Paul 
believe in these things? If so, is it not strange 
that in his teachings and explanations of Chris- 
tianity, he omitted all mention of them ? 

J. P. Newman in his *^ Development of Chris- 
tian Doctrine " shows that the doctrine of the 
Trinity was not completely established in the 
Romish Church before the fourth century. 



122 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

About this time lived Arius. He protested 
against the adoption by the Church of the doc- 
trine of the Trinity, but he was opposed by the 
majority. In the Council of Nice, in 325, he 
offered a creed that was torn to pieces, himself 
but narrowly escaping a similar fate. The Nicene 
Creed was then presented and adopted. 

Though in the minority, there were many who 
refused to endorse the trinitarian doctrine. Arius 
was a man of great intellectual power and he 
became their leader, and from this circumstance 
they were called Arians. 

The Unitarians are the Arians of to-day. There 
is no body of Christians that has a higher rever- 
ence for the Saviour than they. Their ministers 
baptize '' in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Spirit.*' At confirmation 
the minister asks: — ''Do you believe in Jesus 
Christ the Son of God?*' 

Answer: ''I do.'* 

*' Will you renounce the fellowship of evil, and 
endeavor to do the will of God as revealed by 
Jesus Christ?'* 

Answer : '' 1 will." 

It is not uncommon, however, to hear members 
of Orthodox Churches denounce Unitarians in the 
severest terms, frequently declaring that they are 
not Christians. At the same time they will prob- 
ably maintain that they themselves are ''very 
liberal " and desire to respect the religious beliefs 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 23 

of other churches. This claim is, to say the least, 
slightly inconsistent. 

The plain fact is, the orthodox churchman be- 
lieves in Jesus according to the interpretation of 
the ^' fathers," as announced in the fourth and 
fifth centuries ; in times when only the priests and 
" fathers " were permitted to read the Bible. 

The Unitarian, on the other hand, insists upon 
his right to read the Bible and interpret its mean- 
ing. He believes in the plain precepts of Jesus, 
as taught by Himself when He v/as on the earth. 

The Lord's Prayer is distinctly a Unitarian 
Prayer. In it there is no suggestion of ^* Holy, 
blessed, and glorious trinity, three persons and 
one God ! " Unitarian also is that last prayer, 
when from the cross He cried, " Father, forgive 
them ! *' Unitarians fail entirely to understand 
how any Christian can squarely deny the words 
of Jesus, when He said, '' The Father is greater 
than I." 

UNIVERSALISM. 

No important body of Christians is so little 
understood by other sects as the Universalists. 
The average idea is, that the Universalist believes 
that at death all go immediately to Heaven or to 
a condition of complete happiness ! The fact is, 
they believe that every human being enters his 
next existence, very much in the same condition 
in which he leaves the present one. 



124 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

The Universalist Confession of Faith says : 
" We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments contain a revelation of the 
character of God, and of the duty, interest, and 
final destination of mankind." 

The following is a declaration of Universalist 
Principles, adopted at Boston, Mass., in 1899, "^vith 
the statement that no precise form of words is 
required : 

1. ''The Universal Fatherhood of God. 

2. ^' The spiritual authority and leadership of 
His Son, Jesus Christ. 

3. *'The trustworthiness of the Bible as con- 
taining a revelation from God. 

4. ''The certainty of just retribution for sin. 

5. '^The final harmony of all souls with God." 
The Church as an organization does not demand 

a distinct form of creed for all. 

In the " Church of the Eternal Hope," in New 
York City, the following Creed is used : " We 
believe in the Fatherhood of God, the Brother- 
hood of Man, the Spiritual Leadership of Jesus 
Christ, and the Immortality of the Soul. 

" We believe that Goodness is the Eternal Law 
of God, and will finally overcome all evil ; and 
that only as we accept and practise this Law, can 
we find peace, in this world, or in the world to 
come." 

Universalists reject the doctrine that man is 
under the wrath and curse of God for the sins of 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 12$ 

his ancestors. They also reject such doctrines as 
the atonement, justification by faith, etc., etc. 

Of the theory of salvation the Rev. Dr. Jas. M. 
Pullman says : '^ It is held that moral develop- 
ment is not confined to the present state of exist- 
ence, but is conterminous with the whole duration 
of man ; that salvation consists in the formation 
of a character conformed to God*s will ; that such 
a character cannot be instantaneously acquired, 
nor produced in any other way than by the vol- 
untary action of the individual ; that rewards and 
punishments are aids to the development of char- 
acter, and not ends or finalities ; that God's love is 
clearly shown in penalty as well as in reward, 
since, by the return of his deeds upon his head, 
man is made aware that there is somebody in the 
universe who cares for which way he goes ; that 
punishment is medicinal and corrective ; that the 
remission of the penalties of voluntary disobe- 
dience would be unmerciful ; that forgiveness does 
not involve such remission, but works a change in 
the attitude of the soul, which ennobles, instead 
of degrading the sinner. Universalism affirms 
that the revelation of the divine character through 
the Christ is the most potent awakener of the 
moral energy of man ; that the chief function of 
the Church of Christ is to hold His ideal of life 
and character before men, and assist them to attain 
it ; that man cannot find salvation by withdrawing 
from the sphere of life's duties, but that the great 



126 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

school of moral discipline and spiritual culture is 
to be found in the common personal relationships 
and ordinary pursuits of life/' 

Immortality is endless opportunity and unlim- 
ited possibility. 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND MENTAL 
SCIENCE. 

These organizations represent the most modern 
forms of religious and ethical belief. To many, 
perhaps to most people, this assertion will be a 
surprise. The general sentiment seems to be, 
that they are inventions to heal physical disease 
by supernatural force, are claims of healing disease 
by miraculous power ! One divine (!) announced 
this from his pulpit, and said he had investigated 
the subject and that it was '* neither Christian nor 
scientific ! *' What this fossilized divine (!) does 
not know about Christian or Mental Science would 
make a large and interesting volume. He com- 
prehended Christian and Mental Science about as 
much as Saint Anathasius comprehended what is 
called the '^ Godhead,'' which he attempted to 
explain in that jumble of absurd guesswork known 
as the ** Athanasian Creed.'' 

Nothing could be further from truth, than to 

assert that they claim miraculous power. On the 

other hand, Mental Scientists, at least, deny that 

a miracle, as commonly understood, ever has or 

ever will occur. They hold that throughout the 

127 



- 128 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

universe there is one great all-pervading, con- 
stantly developing, forever advancing Force, one 
Eternal Life *^ in whom we live and move and 
have our being,'* and that this great force is God. 
It dwells within each of us, and is our highest 
form of self; above the physical body, above the 
mentality or intellect, above the moral and the 
spiritual. 

Jesus was perfect in and through the fact that 
He fully recognized and comprehended this 
Force, this God within Himself, and in this He 
was far in advance of any human being of whom 
we have any account. His whole life was a 
demonstration of the power of God's Truth, an 
indwelling power that was over all corruption, all 
error, all disease, all sin and death. Man may 
attain to this condition, but only through a sincere 
and true recognition of his highest self. It is 
within the power of every human being to ad- 
vance toward this recognition whenever he elects 
to do so. 

Mind is capable of directing itself. It is in- 
fluenced by both body and spirit, but can decide 
for itself which influence shall predominate. 
Yielding to the former, man becomes perhaps 
licentious, perhaps a drunkard, a glutton, the power 
of his higher self becomes weaker, less restraining, 
and the man becomes vicious. Choosing the latter, 
he is aided and uplifted. He grows in sincerity, 
in kindness, right, goodness. As he proceeds, he 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 29 

will find that its fruits are contentment, satisfac- 
tion, and happiness. 

There is not the slightest doubt but that this 
condition is most favorable for the cure of bodily 
diseases. Experience proves this. All physicians 
acknowledge it, and have recognized its influence 
from time immemorial. But few of them realize 
the full meaning of their words when they say, 
" Now let nature do the rest,'* as though great na- 
ture was secondary to nostrum ! Yet let me not 
be misunderstood in speaking of that noble body 
of men, the physicians. Every one knows how 
prominent they have been in advancing the world 
of science, both within and without the profession. 
They are, in an eminent degree, leaders in intel- 
lectual progress ; however, they themselves, or 
at least most of them, wnll admit that many of 
their number are quite indisposed to adopt the 
advances that are being made every year by the 
profession. A majority of them, so far as I can 
see, are disposed to combat the beliefs in mental 
healing. Fortunately this majority is decreasing. 
The able editor of one of our Medical Journals 
recently published an editorial in which he said 
that one hundred years from now very little med- 
icine would be prescribed or given, and that the 
doctors* treatment would then be principally by 
suggestion ! We cannot expect doctors (any more 
than dominies) to pay much attention to criti- 
cisms from the unprofessional, but an article like 
9 



130 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

the one referred to should make them lay aside 
their prejudices and think of the possibilities of 
mentality. 

That there is an invisible channel or atmos- 
phere, through which a person is affected by the 
presence or thought or act of another, admits of 
no doubt. Perhaps the most common and simple 
illustration of this is the act of yawning, which is 
often spoken of as ^'catching.*' A man may not 
only bring himself under the power of his own 
higher being, but he may be, and is, affected by 
the influence of those by whom he is surrounded 
and with whom he comes in contact. It is through 
this means that the influence of the mental 
healer is exercised upon the sick or infirm. The 
real healing force is within every human being ; 
it is simply aided in asserting itself by the influ- 
ence of the healer. 

Many have never heard of this science. Many 
have ** seen something of it, but gave it no atten- 
tion,'' others have heard enough concerning men- 
tal science to sneer and scoff at it. Among these 
are, of course, persons of intelligence, but there 
are also the egotistical, the established, the prej- 
udiced, those who are sure they are sound in 
doctrine, and — the truly ignorant. On the other 
hand, thousands of intelligent and thoughtful 
people are giving careful consideration to this 
growing development, and the result is, that they 
are usually convinced that mental science is not 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I3I 

only built upon foundations of truth, but that it 
embodies a religious belief that is in advance of all 
others. 

Mental Science deals with disease of the body 
as well as of the mind, and the higher elements 
that are within us, the moral and the spiritual ; 
and it does this through the influence of the 
higher over the lower. If we believe that the 
mind is superior to the body, and that the soul 
or spirit is superior to the mind, it is logically 
plain that the higher element (or elements) should 
influence the mind in the same manner that the 
mind influences the body. This last influence is 
not only acknowledged by all physicians, but 
comes within the experience and observation of 
everyone. A person is often made ill through 
anger, or fear, or worry, and if the mind of a sick 
man is occupied with such emotions, his condition 
IS far less favorable for recovery, than when his 
mentality is quiet and placid. It is of even 
greater importance that the higher self should 
be serene and tranquil. It is just here that the 
influence of the healer is helpful. 

The term ** healer*' is not entirely correct. It 
is apt to give the impression of a person who 
possesses the power of working supernaturally — 
miraculously. This is far from the fact. Mental 
Science disclaims miracle. A healer must be full 
of sincerity and truth, must be imbued with the 
highest form of reverence for and faith and con- 



132 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

fidence in GOD ! His aim is to lead toward the 
same condition those whom he would aid. This 
involves a religion in itself, a religion that leads 
us higher, a religion that is Christlike ! 

Mental Scientists are believers in an evolu- 
tion from lowest to highest, from the lowest 
visible to the highest invisible. The following 
diagram illustrates this : 

Divine. 
Spiritual. 
Moral. 
Mental. 



5. Human.. , 
4. Animal. 
3. Vegetable. 
2. Mineral. 
I. Dust. 

Visible, 



Invisible. 



Man has the mental and may by his own choice 
attain the moral, the spiritual ; he may even 
ascend to the Divine, as did Jesus, the great 
leader. 

All believers in Mental Science make use of 
what is called self-treatment. The following is 
an illustration of this, and is from The Exodus of 
June, 1897. 

It is for '^ Insomnia,*' and whoever suffers from 
that cause, would do well to commit it to memory 
and to repeat it mentally when they have closed 
their eyes for sleep, earnestly applying it to their 
true higher self : 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 33 

(When there is the sense named " Insomnia.") 

I am free from all struggle and strife. 

I am free from anxiety and apprehension. 

I am free from all strain and tension. 

I abide under the shadow of the Almighty ! 

I am able to see what I should do : I am able 
to do what I see should be done. 

I have clear vision, because I desire to do only 
that which is right and just. 

I shall not entangle myself ; I shall be shown 
the way in which I should walk, moment by 
moment. 

Whatsoever comes into my mortal experience, 
for me there is no loss ; there can be only gain. 

Because of what I am in being, nothing pertain- 
ing to my growth in self-recognition can bring me 
real harm. 

I see and feel that I am complete and whole ; 
and that I live and move and have this being in 
God, my Cause. 

I am safe and secure every moment. 

I am cradled in the eternal arms, I rest upon 
the Infinite bosom. 

I am sinking into that sleep which is peace and 
rest, refreshment and strengthening. 

It is mine, as a child-soul that is nurtured from 
the divine ; and I have no fear of aught that can 
befall me. 

There is One that neither slumbers nor sleeps, 
and I am guarded and protected. 

I give myself up to quiet slumber. I sleep 
with the sleeping world ; with the fields and the 
flowers ; with the creatures small and great. 

For we are one Brotherhood ; and I hear the 
voice of our Father in the murmur of the stream ; 



134 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

in the gentle rustle of the night-wind ; in the 
breath of the flowers. 

It says to me, '' Rest, my child. All things 
rest. Take your rest. I am here. I will never 
leave nor forsake you.'' 

I let go all effort to do or to be. 

I sink back into these waiting arms. 

I feel them close tenderly about me. 

I am in the '' green pastures/' beside the "still 
waters." I am with the good Shepherd of the 
sheep." 

I am asleep, for '' He giveth His beloved 
sleep. 

This IS an example of inspiration ; and if it 
were in the *' Psalms," it would be regarded as 
one of the most beautiful. 

The following, taken from the Literary Digest 
of Feb. loth, 1800, shows that M. Constant is 
clearly in harmony with Mental Science : 

WHAT IS TO BE THE RELIGION OF THE 

FUTURE ? 

" A work which has attracted much attention 
has lately appeared from the pen of a French sa- 
vant, M. Henri Constant, in which he expresses 
the view of many thinkers in France as to the future 
of religion. He regards dogmatic Christianity as 
hopelessly discredited and undermined, from the 
historical, scientific, and ethical standpoints. Yet, 
he believes, the sterile negations, or still more 
brutal affirmations of materialism, will never satisfy 
the human intellect or the soul, and the time will 
come when the noble philosophy of the Neo- 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 35 

Platonists and the doctrines of the extreme Orient 
will be sifted and accepted in part, supplemented 
by numerous contributions from the virile intellect 
and spirit of the West, including much from phy- 
sical science, from spiritualism, and from such 
schools of thought as that of Prentice Mulford 
and the new metaphysical or mental science move- 
ment. In the light of this rational and humane 
religion, the dark superstitions and grotesque 
survivals of former barbarian ages will be dis- 
sipated as the sun scatters the shades of night. 
M. Constant formulates his prophetic statement 
of this new religion in part, as follows : 

*' First — A supreme intelligence rules the 
worlds. That intelligence, which we call God, is 
the conscious Ego of the universe. It is in the 
universe, for the universe, and through the uni- 
verse that the divine thought is objectified. 

" Second — All creations develop themselves in 
an ascending series, without a break in the con- 
tinuity. The mineral realm passes insensibly into 
the vegetable, the vegetable in the animal, and 
this, in turn, into the human with no sharply 
marked lines of distinction. There is a double 
evolution, material and spiritual. These two 
forms of evolution run parallel and jointly, life 
itself being but a manifestation of the spirit ap- 
pearing as movement.'' 

AGNOSTICISM. 

Some one has said that Agnosticism is the 
science of believing in nothing. This seems to 
be about the best possible definition. 
^ Agnostics have, so far as we know, neither or- 



136 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

ganization, creed, nor belief. This is perhaps bal- 
anced by their superabundance of unbelief, which 
they have stored up in an unlimited quantity. 
They deny all evidence that cannot be physically 
and absolutely demonstrated. 

The late Robert G. Ingersoll was for many years 
their chief exponent in the United States. He 
was a man of unusually pure moral character, of 
large reasoning power, and great persuasive ability. 
He had many religious controversies with clergy- 
men of various orthodox denominations, which 
were published in the North American Review^ in 
all of which he had clearly the best of the argu- 
ment. He was immensely popular as a speaker. 

Great, though, as were his abilities, his success 
lay more in the weakness of the doctrines which 
he assailed, than in the strength of his own posi- 
tion. He was narrow and often unfair, in that he 
was destitute of charity for those who differed 
with him. Yet it must be admitted that his in- 
fluence upon religious thought and teachings was 
of vast effect in modifying and ameliorating the 
severities of tenets that have lost much of their 
force during the past twenty-five years. He 
seemed incapable of appreciating anything in man 
higher than intelligence. Had he been less of a 
materialist his influence might have been more 
extended. 

By many, it is supposed that Thomas Paine 
(who more than a century ago wrote '' The Age 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 37 

of Reason '') was an Agnostic. Such is not the 
case. He was a Deist. He wrote a brief creed 
which embodied his faith as follows : 

" I beHeve in one God and no more ; and I hope 
for happiness beyond this life. 

'* I believe in the equality of man, and I believe 
that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving 
mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-crea- 
tures happy.** 

Not a bad faith to live by ! * 

* No seeker after religious truths will make a mistake by read- 
ing the works of Thomas Paine. He was a profound reasoner, 
and no man of his day knew how to adjust and use the scales of 
mental philosophy better than he. 



CONCLUSION. 

In bringing this little volume to a close, it seems 
quite in place, that the author should note briefly 
some of his own beliefs upon the subjects of which 
he has been writing, even though they may be of 
little value. He only claims, that whether his 
thoughts be considered good, bad, or indifferent, 
they are entirely honest. He has no desire to 
dwell upon or even point out errors that exist in 
the Bible. All students of that grand old book 
know that they are numerous. He has, however, 
no such feeling toward teachers of the present 
day, who lend themselves to the continuance of 
that which is false. 

Here is an example. Isaiah vii. 14 says : 
"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.** 
Now, for centuries, the Church has taught, and still 
teaches, that this was a prophecy relating to the 
birth of Jesus ! The fact is, the prophecy related 
to a child that should be born during the time 
that Ahaz was king of Judah, and this was some 
seven hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus ! 
Superstition alone can make it appear that Isaiah 
knew more of this than other men of his time, or 

138 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 39 

than we can tell of a man who will be born seven 
hundred years hence. Isaiah prophesied this, as 
a *' sign from the Lord '' to Ahaz, that he should 
overcome his enemies, but that prophecy was 
never fulfilled. 

If one reads the chapter, it will be found in- 
coherent and disconnected, as were most of the 
writings of Isaiah. In the next chapter he tells 
of going ** unto the prophetess ; and she conceived 
and bare a son." Then the Lord told Isaiah to 
** call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.'' This was 
probably represented as a fulfilment of the proph- 
ecy first referred to ! The whole story is incon- 
sistent and unworthy of rational belief. Special 
divine inspiration cannot be admitted. Such a 
theory would mean absolute correctness, no 
mystery nor ambiguity. Divine inspiration and 
uncertainty or imperfection are as inconsistent as 
truth and falsehood. As well might Bishop Potter 
have attempted to give to President McKinley a 
'* sign from the Lord,'* during our war with Spain ; 
or the Archbishop of Canterbury might give to 
Queen Victoria a " sign from the Lord/' on the 
outcome of the Boer war ! We should consider 
such things absurd. Why more so now, than 
2600 years ago ? On the other hand, even in 
recent times the Mahdi has had '^ signs from the 
Lord*' in great abundance! The difference be- 
tween intelligence and superstition is thus illus- 
trated. 



140 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

I feel and know that I have the highest reverence 
for our great master, Jesus, grandest human being 
of whom we have any account, but I find nothing 
to make me believe that His greatness or grandeur 
rested upon, or in any way depended on, prophecy 
or birth. I find nothing to induce us to accept 
either the prophecy or the physical circumstances 
related of His birth. In the nature of things, they 
are not, and never were, susceptible of proof. 
Only somebody said that Mary said so, and some- 
body said, that Joseph said, that, in a dream, an 
angel said so. The evidence is unsubstantial and 
entirely improbable, but, best of all, it is utterly 
unimportant. 

The character of Jesus rests upon something 
broader, deeper than prophecy or birth, as differ- 
ent as noonday is from midnight. It rests upon 
His life and teaching! 

His life of goodness ! 

His knowledge of His higher self! 

His love toward His brethren ! 

His kindness to the poor ! 

His sympathy for the suffering! 

His charity for the erring ! 

His forgiveness for His enemies! 

His consideration for all ! 

His influence in the world ! 

Without doubt the writer will be called a here- 
tic, by some who may read these pages. He has 
no objection to the term when he considers the 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I4I 

circumstances which call it forth. The army of 
heretics is a large and constantly increasing force. 

The term heretic is of rather uncertain meaning, 
depending so much upon the standpoint from 
whence it proceeds. To the Jews, all Christians 
are heretics ; to the Catholics, all Protestants are 
heretics ; and to the orthodox Protestants, the 
more liberal thinkers are heretics. 

How much does the world owe to heretics? 
The greatest of all heresies began 1900 years ago, 
and Jesus Christ was its great leader ! Then for 
fifteen centuries all heretics were suppressed ! And 
what centuries of darkness they were ! 

Then came the heresy of Copernicus, and that 
of Luther, and the world awoke and began its 
movement of modern progress. 

Is not the foregoing plain, simple truth ? Why 

not say then, the noble army of heretics ? 

The ranks of this army are being constantly re- 
cruited from those who are seeking for truth. 
And indeed, any man who places a higher value 
upon truth, than upon tradition and legend, is 
liable to become a heretic in spite of himself. 
Let him fear not, he is in no danger. Whenever 
he exchanges that which is said to be for that 
which is, for him there can be only gain. 

Some years ago, the writer was traveling by 
rail in the South. The train made frequent stops, 
and, of the local passengers who were constantly 
boarding and leaving the train, many were ac- 



142 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

quaintances. Among these was an old-fashioned 
Methodist minister. He quite freely expressed 
his dissent from the custom of sending young 
men to Europe to be educated. 

" Why/* said he, '' there was Edward ... his 
father sent him to Germany. He remained there 
two or three years, and when he came back — he 
was a raving heretic ! And there was Mr. So-and- 
so. He sent his son William to Germany. Be- 
fore he went, he was as religious a boy as you'd 
wish to see, and when in a few years he returned, 
he was a raving heretic ! '* 

The word "raving'* was delivered with a long 

Our clerical friend could not realize that Edward 
and William had simply begun to think, a crime 
which he had scarcely committed during his whole 
life ! He preferred superstition, and had much 
to say of the religion which he learned at his 
mother's knee. 

Another incident here comes to my memory. 

A few years ago, I was one of a small party 
that was being conducted through the great cathe- 
dral at Milan, Italy. Our guide, a very excellent 
one, paused in the central nave and directed our 
attention to a point high above us where two 
rafters met, and said : 

*^ You see that little shelf? Well, on that shelf 
is a box, and in that box is a nail from the holy 
cross. Once a year, on the occasion of a certain 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I43 

great feast which lasts for three days, that box is 
taken down and the nail is exhibited to the people, 
who are taught to believe that it has for them a 
saving virtue, and who therefore pay a small sum 
for the blessed privilege of looking at it. When 
it was down last in one day thirty-five thousand 
people, in two lines, passed through this nave, 
each one looking at the nail and paying the fee. 
Some, by paying a higher fee, were permitted to 
touch the nail, and these last believed that they 
received a larger proportion of divine favor.'* 

My orthodox brother will hold up his hands at 
this and say : ** What idolatry ! What deception ! 
What a delusion ! What a shame that there 
should be teaching that aims to perpetuate such 
intolerable ignorance ! How those poor people 
are deluded ! '' 

Wait, my good brother, and let me tell you 
something. When you are asserting and explain- 
ing and preaching up the old doctrines of the 
'' fathers," invented during the dark ages, you are 
simply displaying the rusty nails of supersti- 
tion ! 

A few of these rusty nails are the doctrines of 
The Fall of Man ; The Atonement ; The Trinity ; 
Justification by Faith ; Adoption ; Sanctification ; 
Decree of Election, etc., etc. There are many 
more of them. They should all be put in the box 
with the alleged rusty nail from the holy cross. 
They are substantially the same, and are of equal 



144 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

value and efficiency, equally powerless and decep- 
tive! 

What is the doctrine of the atonement ? It is 
substantially this : James and John steal some 
apples from a farmer, who is very angry thereat. 
Thereupon, Peter catches the farmer^s son (who 
is entirely innocent), and gives him a tremendous 
thrashing. With this the wrath of the farmer is 
appeased, and he forgives James and John. What 
could be more ridiculous, unreasonable or un- 
just ? And yet this is practically the doctrine of 
the atonement, and not one whit more inconsist- 
ent ! 

The doctrine of the atonement has for its 
foundation the religious beliefs of early historic 
man, the belief that man must of a necessity do 
something to appease the wrath of a revengeful 
God — a time when our progenitors were in a 
condition of savagery. Hence came the belief in 
sacrifice, the burning of bullocks, sheep, goats, 
and doves. To pacify their enemies, they gave 
them food. God lived above the sky, and they 
could not reach Him, but the burning of flesh made 
a '' sweet savor which ascended and went directly 
to their god'* (Gen. viii. 21, ''and the Lord 
smelled a sweet savour "). The books of Moses 
are filled with this teaching. Their sacrifices of 
beasts and birds were an atonement for their sins. 
In precisely the same manner, Calvinistic theology 
teaches that the sacrifice of Jesus was an atone. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I45 

ment for the elect, by and through which they 
receive the forgiveness and favor of God ! 

Jesus never taught nor even mentioned the 
doctrine of the atonement. Words and sentences 
must be strained and tortured to make such a con- 
struction of anything He ever uttered. On the 
contrary, He distinctly taught that love toward 
God and our neighbor is more than all sacrifice. 

Equally absurd is the doctrine of *' justification 
by faith." 

Worse than all, however, is the doctrine of fore- 
ordination, which teaches that God for His own 
glory ^ created some men for the express purpose 
of torturing them throughout all eternity ! 
Fear not, my friend, simply trying to live a good 
life ! Such a God is as much a myth as was 
Jupiter or Pluto. 

For further information as to these doctrines — 
see the ** Westminster Confession of Faith," which 
has been considered the constitution of the Pres- 
byterian Church. 

God, as pictured in the Apostles' Creed, is rep- 
resented by the Father, sitting upon a great 
throne. The Son is sitting upon His right hand. 
Nothing is said concerning the seat at His left 
hand, but it would not be unfair to presume, or 
assume it to be occupied by the Holy Ghost. To 
this conception, the early fathers, and many 
Trinitarians of the present day, direct their prayers ! 

Some of the heathen pray to a wooden elephant ! 
10 



146 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

One is as logical and as powerful as the other. If 
there is any difference, the wooden elephant has 
slightly the advantage, for that is at least some- 
thing tangible, while the throne with its occupants 
is entirely imaginative. Neither ever did, ever 
will, nor ever can answer a prayer ! In thousands 
of Sunday schools in our land, this conception of 
God is taught to-day, a god who rules, rewards, 
and condemns from a certain place, called heaven ! 

The cause of this goes back centuries and cen- 
turies to a time when the ** fathers " undertook 
to explain what they themselves did not under- 
stand. How they reached their conclusions 
would be only a matter of conjecture. But the 
unfortunate part of it is, that their teaching 
is being preserved and sustained even now, in 
" prayers for rain,'* or ^' prayers for fair weather,*' 
or prayers that God will kindly prevent the wind 
from blowing, while some special person crosses 
the ocean ! These prayers have been in use so 
many hundreds of years as to make it certain 
that, if they were ever answered, we should have 
seen the results. No evidence of the kind exists. 

As for miracles, I do not think we clearly under- 
stand the accounts of them. For example — how 
is it possible to understand this miracle (see 
Matthew viii. 30.) : — 

** And there was a good way off from them, a 
herd of many swine feeding. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I47 

" So the devils besought him saying : If thou 
cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of 
swine. 

'* And he said unto them, Go ; and when they 
were come out (of the men), they went into the 
herd of swine ; and, behold, the whole herd ran 
violently down a steep place into the sea and 
perished in the waters.** 

Orthodoxy will say this is figurative. I would 
inquire why it is more so than any of the other 
recorded miracles ? How can you determine 
which miracles are figurative and which are not ? 
The word *' figurative ** is often used as a most 
convenient post behind which to dodge. 

A miracle is thus defined : '* An event in the 
physical world, wrought by God, independently 
of the agencies through which He ordinarily 
works.*' 

If we assume that the way in which " He ordi- 
narily works " is natural, then clearly the miracle 
is supernatural, and in this sense it seems to be 
generally accepted by those who claim the ab- 
solute infallibility of everything in the Bible. 

Miracle and superstition are closely allied. It 
IS hard to distinguish between them. Theologians 
have vainly attempted it for centuries, and are 
tinkering at it still. For myself, I find no evi- 
dence to convince me that such a thing as a miracle, 
as commonly accepted, ever really occurred. The 
accounts are indefinite. Even in the example 



148 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

given, the accounts lack conformability, Matthew 
says the devils came out of two men. Mark and 
Luke, speaking of the same occurrence, each say 
that they came out of one man. John says 
nothing about it. 

Miracles are said to have been performed by 
Moses and the prophets, and also by the disciples 
after Jesus. It is claimed that they were neces- 
sary in the ancient days. On what basis can 
theology explain why they are not equally neces- 
sary to-day ? Especially those theologians who 
are loud in their wails that '* heresy is stalking 
through the land *' ? If ever a miracle was needed 
it is now, right now, for nothing short of the 
supernatural can prevent the collapse of the tot- 
tering dogmas and doctrines of the dark ages, 
tenets that are fast fading from our view. It does 
not seem that the miracle god is a very lofty 
image. One who makes laws and then occasion- 
ally breaks over them for the sake of a miracle 
scarcely seems to fill the true conception of an im- 
mutable, all-wise God ! 

Where shall we look for God ? Look not for 
Him in some distant place ! Look not for Him 
in the boundless Universe ! Look for Him within 
yourself ; and if you look ** in sincerity and in 
truth ** you will find Him. " The Kingdom of 
God is within you ! ** 

Let any man, *^ in sincerity and in truth," ask 
his higher self, ^^ What shall I do to be saved ? *' 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 149 

and the answer is instantaneously, ** Do rights 
In order to do right, you must necessarily think 
right. If you think right and do right, you will 
feel right ; and this is a condition not far from 
Heaven. 

For myself, I have no conception of a higher 
form of religion than a true appreciation of the 
few lines I have just written ! '* The kingdom of 
Heaven is within you ** seem to me the most 
remarkable words Jesus ever gave us, the very 
key-note of His religion ! God dwells in His 
kingdom, and if His kingdom is within you, surely 
God is within you ! Look for Him there ! And 
how perfectly those words harmonize with " The 
Father that dwelleth in me/' and ** The Father 
and I are one ! ** My friend, the Father is within 
you ! Look for Him there ! 

What is it that makes the acorn grow until it 
produces a tree ? It is the power within itself ! 

What makes the bud to expand into the bloom- 
ing flower ? It is the power within itself ! 

What develops the tiny seed into the blade of 
grass ? It is the power within itself ! 

What gives you physical growth? It is the 
power within yourself ! 

If the Creator implants such power in inanimate 
things and in your physical body, do you think 
He has neglected to supply your intelligence, your 
morality, your spirituality, with an indwelling 
power of growth ? Has He omitted to provide 



I50 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

you with a guide to lead and instruct you, to 
bring you to a higher development? He has 
forgotten, neglected, or omitted nothing ! 

** The kingdom of God is within you ! ** Look 
for Hint there ! 

I believe that the spirit of God dwells within 
every man ! It shone in Moses ! In Jesus it was 
and is an illuminating tower ! It was a bright 
light in Luther, in Newton, in Shakespeare, in 
Darwin, in Channing, in Lincoln. It varies in 
different men — from the clear bright flame to the 
smallest spark, but it exists in all. 

Jesus says : '* The works that I do shall ye do 
also." " The Father that dwelleth in me, He 
doeth the work.'' '' No man can come except 
the Father draw him.'' '' Behold the kingdom of 
God is within you." 

The Father is in us even as in Jesus, our Master; 
it is our higher self ; and only through a recogni- 
tion of this spirit of God within can man ever 
attain to his highest development ; for man can 
grow in this recognition, by his own choice. Not 
in an instant, not at one bound, but slowly, 
steadily, and surely ; and when he once comes 
into an appreciation of the value of this self- 
recognition, he will not exchange it for anything, 
or any conceivable condition, in this world. The 
one great essential is absolute sincerity. 

Pray to the God that is within you ! See to it, 
that your higher self is the controlling force of 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 151 

your whole life ! This is within your power, and 
when you have attained to that condition, it will 
lead you aright. You will have secured the Pearl 
of Great Price. You can go up higher if you will. 
This assertion is easily proved by its reverse. 
Every man knows that he can become a villain, 
if he will. The two elements are distinctly with- 
in you. The choice of which shall be developed 
into a controlling power rests entirely with your- 
self. 

A man's existence is as though he were walk- 
ing on one of the steps of a boundless stairway. 
To his right the steps ascend ; to his left they 
descend. Go forward he must ; but whether he 
will remain on his present level, or go up higher, 
or go to a lower level, is by his own choice. The 
whole human race are walking along with him on 
the steps of this great stairway. Some are on 
higher levels, some on lower, but all may go 
higher or lower as they will ! 

That there is a higher self existing within us is 
plainly apparent. 

Mind embraces the intelligence, the thinking 
power, through which we study, learn, and reason. 
It is midway between body and spirit, or higher 
self. 

Whether this self is further subdivided is 
beyond our vision. Among its attributes are 
Conscience, Reverence, the Affections, Intuition, 
Kindness, and Sympathy. These qualities do 



152 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

not emanate from the mind or intelligence. A 
man may possess a powerful intellect, and yet be 
deficient or weak in any or all of the others, just 
as he may be physically strong, but weak in intel- 
lect. 

Or let us take for example Intuition. Suppose 
that at the same moment three hands are brought 
in contact with a piece of red-hot iron. One 
hand is that of an old man, one that of a person 
of middle age, and the third that of an infant. 
Instantly all three hands are withdrawn intui- 
tively. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. 
Plainly the action is independent of the mind. 
Reason did not direct it, for there was no time 
to reason. Perhaps some Doctor will suggest 
nerves ! Nerves are a part of the physical body, 
and, of themselves, have no feeling w^hatever. 
That nothing pertaining to the body has feeling, 
is clearly demonstrated in the case of a person 
under the influence of an anaesthetic. 

Take the affections ; a man may be very much 
attached to a woman whom his intelligence utterly 
rejects. The same is the case where a woman is 
attached to a man whom she cannot respect. It 
is a dispute between reason and an opposing 
force within. To say distinctly what this force 
is, or whence it comes, seems impossible. 

Perhaps there is no emanation from the higher 
self more distinctively clear than conscience, the 
natural faculty of judging between right and 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 53 

wrong. It does not come from the intelligence, 
but if they are in harmony, both are strength- 
ened. The same may be said of the emotions, as 
for example, joy or sorrow. 

Creeds, doctrines, and dogmas do not make 
men religious. On the contrary, man*s religious 
thinking has produced them. Let us have no 
fear of rejecting any religious theory that ever 
was invented if it fails to accomplish good ! But 
let us reverence as true religion whatever demon- 
strates its power of making mankind better ! 
** By their fruits ye shall know them.'* 

Many years ago, a young man went from a 
home where he had been brought up under what 
might be called orthodox influences and sur- 
roundings. He went into the world, had many 
experiences, saw much of the light and dark sides 
of life in many places, in a great variety of cir- 
cumstances and conditions. After some years he 
settled down, as they say, to business, giving it his 
entire attention. During his years of wandering, 
he had heard many preachers and listened, mostly 
by chance, to many religious controversies, occa- 
sionally reading something on religious subjects. 
No fixed impressions remained with him. He be- 
came skeptical and doubtful as to matters of 
faith and indifferent to doctrines and dogmas. A 
time came when he felt a little more interest in 
these subjects, especially in the question of im- 
mortality. Such churches as he attended gave 



154 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

him little or no help. The preachers seemed in- 
definite and unsatisfactory, often illogical, giving 
themselves chiefly to attempts at explaining what 
he felt they did not themselves understand. 

Here are a few of the many set phrases he used 
to hear from the pulpit : 

*' God's Eternal Decree." 

'* Assurance of Grace and Salvation.** 

'' Joy in the Holy Ghost.'' 

'* Access to the throne of Grace." 

*' The condemning wrath of God." 

'' Godly Fear." 

'* Grace in the Heart." 

^^ Wilful Schism." 

** Gospel plan of Salvation." 

^* Satisfying the law." 

^' God's covenant with man." 

'' Stirring up the Grace of God that is in them." 

'' Saving Faith." 

'' Scheme of redemption." 

To him these and many similar expressions 
were incongruous and meaningless. Was he 
irreverent ? They sounded to him like *' tweedle- 
dum and tweedledee," and he wondered how 
people could become enthusiastic under preaching 
so largely composed of, or based upon, these, to 
him, meaningless idioms. 

He looked carefully over the creeds, with the 
result that he could no longer read them. He 
could neither make them harmonize with the say- 
ings and teachings of Jesus, nor with his own in- 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 1 55 

telligence. How little of satisfaction there seemed 
to be in what had come to his mind in the way 
of religion. Only a skeptic, in the dark ! " 

At length he heard a number of sermons read 
by George William Curtis. Some were written by 
Dr. Channing, others by James Freeman Clarke 
and by others of the Unitarian faith. Those who 
remember the fine elocution, the impressive man- 
ner and the deep earnestness of Mr. Curtis, will 
appreciate how really enjoyable these discourses 
were. To our friend they were a revelation, a 
something with which he could sympathize. They 
were the first sermons that ever really appealed to 
him. Especially was he interested in a beautiful 
discourse by Dr. Clarke, entitled '' Go up Higher.** 

Dreadfulty unorthodox, but from those days 
orthodoxy was with him more than ever a back 
number. 

He bought the works of both Channing and 
Clarke, and for the first time in his life (though 
then in the forties) was able to feel interested in 
reading sermons which wasted no time or words 
on doctrine or dogma ; sermons which taught that 
the religion of Jesus is love toward God and all 
that is good, and kindness toward our fellows; 
sermons which taught that character is salvation ! 

He had a great admiration for these lines of 
Leigh Hunt : 

** Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase !) 
Awoke one night from a deep dreaih of peace, 



156 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

And saw within the moonlight in his room, 
Making it rich, and Uke a Hly in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold : 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the Presence in the room he said, 

* What writest thou ? ' — The vision raised its head, 
And, with a look made all of sweet accord. 
Answered — ' The names of those who love the Lord.* 

* And is mine one ? * said Abou. * Nay, not so,* 
Replied the angel. — Abou spoke more low, 
But cheerly still ; and said, * I pray thee, then. 
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.' 
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night 
It came again, with a great wakening light. 

And showed the names, whom love of God had blessed- 
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest ! " 



*' One who loves his fellow-men.'* What was 
he doing for his fellow-men? Anything? Pos- 
sibly a little — but so little ! Was he working 
with his best thought ? Was the world any bet- 
ter for his having lived in it ? Was he improving 
the condition of anybody or anything ? Was he 
improving himself ? Did he appreciate his re- 
sponsibility to his Creator, his responsibility to his 
fellow-men, his responsibility to himself? 

A time came when this man said : '* My 
Father, my Creator, and my God ! I know not 
where or how to find Thee, but I believe that 
Thou dost exist, and that Thou art mindful of 
Thy creatures. I would come to Thee, my 
Father, but I have so little to bring, so little to 
offer ! So little of good ! So much of indiffer- 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. IJ/ 

ence ! I can see but one good thing within my- 
self, but one thing that is satisfactory, a desire to 
improve, a wish to grow better ! It is so weak 
and inefficient ! It is like a little plant growing 
among the weeds ! Father, let it not perish ! 
Bless its growth until it shall overshadow and 
control my whole life ! In my blindness, give 
me guidance ! In my weakness, give me strength ! 
In my poverty and want, give me help as Thou 
knowest my need ! May I yet be an instrument 
in thy hand of doing good to my fellow-men ! '* 

This prayer was repeated many, many times, is 
repeated yet, may be repeated forever ! 

Years passed away, bringing little change — years 
of carelessness, years of lack of earnestness toward 
that which is good. Finally came sickness, pain, 
and suffering. He has remembrances of doctors, 
surgeons, anxious faces, nurses, consultations, 
medicines, operations, long days, weeks and 
months of wavering between life and death. 

Then came what the doctors called convales- 
cence. He could totter around. He could walk. 
He could go down upon the street for five, ten, 
twenty minutes, for an hour or more. Here im- 
provement seemed to halt. Pain, suffering, ner- 
vousness, weakness, and unrest seemed his pon 
tion ! 

Is it strange that he walked the streets won- 
dering why the doctors could not cure him? Or 
that he thought of death as his only release, and 



158 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

hoped that it might not be long delayed, or that 
it required all of the little strength he had to 
keep from ending his own life ? 

Here comes a change! Here rises a star! — a 
ray of light — a glimpse of day ! 

For many years his wife had been interested in 
mental healing, a believer in its truth, though 
with comparatively little of the knowledge of it, 
which comes from seeking and from experience. 

She urged him to go to a mental healer. At 
first he could not be persuaded to go. He told 
his wife that such a treatment *' might do *' in 
nervous diseases and the like, but it was in his 
case simply absurd,^ in fact that she knew very 
little or nothing about it. 

There was no small amount of controversy on 
the subject. He could only see the absurdity of 
such nonsense ; she maintained that it rested upon 
foundations of truth. She more than maintained 
her position, for after a time he consented to be 
treated by a mental healer, provided his physician 
did not object ! That functionary was consulted 
and gave his consent, said ^' it could do no harm.*' 
In truth it is but justice to him to say that he 
gave the plan his approval, through the fact that he 
himself had a high appreciation of the value of a 
placid mind in all cases of disease. 

The mental treatment began, and with it began 

* This is the usual view of those who know nothing of mental 
healing. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I $9 

an improvement little dreamed of by the benefi- 
ciary. When he first stated his case to the healer 
(guide or helper would be a more descriptive name), 
he had little or no faith or hope of benefit. Like 
the doctor, he thought it could do no harm, and 
there was a glimmering possibility that it might 
do good. Though improvement became almost 
immediately apparent, he still clung for a time to 
his doctor and surgeon. The last time he saw the 
latter, he said (and no surgeon in America stands 
higher in his profession) that further surgical 
treatment was imperative. He privately told the 
wife that '* to save life, an operation was absolutely 
necessary within two weeks." 

Our friend wavered — not knowing what course 
to take. Not so with his wife. No wavering was 
there, though against the advice of both surgeon 
and physician she stood bravely for no opera- 
tion. 

Very soon the doctors were given up entirely 
— all dependence upon them ended, and our friend 
from that time has relied only upon Mental Treat- 
ment, under which the tendency has constantly 
been toward improvement. Since then more than 
two years have passed. He has grown better, 
stronger, happier, and within the past few months 
has been able at odd times to write this little 
book! 

He has grown better from every point of view 
— stronger, clearer in mind, happier. Friends tell 



l6o Cr.EEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

him ^ e 's growing younger. He rests contented 
'n the belief that the power that created him, 
dwells within him, and will never leave nor for- 
sake him. He asks for no better light than that 
which God has given, the in-dwelling, ever-de- 
veloping higher self, confident in the faith that 
1 ./ill forever guide him onward and upward. 



APPENDIX. 

It seems to me entirely proper and right for 
any man who has sincere religious convictions to 
express them to his fellow-men in any manner he 
may choose. I will go a little farther and say it 
is his plain duty to do so. What I have written 
I believe to be true. There remain to be added 
only a few words as to what in my opinion should 
be the Creed of all Christians. 

It is absolutely essential that it should be broad 
enough to embrace all who believe in the Sa- 
viour. 

It is equally true that Christian Unity must be 
established, before the world can be Christianized. 

I believe the Creed of the Universalist Church, 
as given in the chapter on Universalism (see 
page 124), will ultimately be adopted ; omitting 
the words ** and will finally overcome all evil.'* 
Not that I reject the expression, but because some 
Christians may believe that evil has existed 
throughout the beginningless past, as a necessity 
inGod*s eternalpurpose, and that as He is change- 
less in His work, evil will necessarily continue for- 
ever. 

II 161 



\62 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

The Creed would then be : I believe in the 
Fatherhood of God ; the Brotherhood of man ; 
the Spiritual leadership of Jesus Christ, and the 
immortality of the soul. 

I believe that Goodness is the eternal law of 
God ; and that only as we accept and practise this 
law can we find peace in this world or in the world 
to come. Can there be anything said by Chris- 
tians against any statement in this creed ? 

It is related of Abraham Lincoln that on a cer- 
tain occasion,when asked why it was that he had 
never united with a church, he expressed his in- 
ability to sincerely accept any of the special creeds 
submitted to him and closed his remarks with 
these words : '* When any church will inscribe 
over its altar as its sole qualification for member, 
ship the Saviour's condensed statement of the 
substance of both Law and Gospel, ' Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy 
neighbour as thyself ' — that church will I join with 
all my heart and all my soul.'' Certainly, Lincoln 
could have subscribed to the foregoing Creed. 

I am plain enough to prefer the broad manhood 
and charity of Lincoln to the narrow and cruel 
theology of Calvin, or the absurd and blasphe- 
mous inventions of Athanasius ! 

That unity, which should exist in Christianity, 
can never be attained while each denomination 
insists on its own peculiar views. At the outer 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 163 

door of the temple of United Christianity, the 
Catholic must leave his Pope, his powerful Saints, 
Ah ! even his Blessed Virgin ! 

The Episcopalian must be willing to relinquish 
his forms and ceremonies ! The Baptist must 
give up the idea that it is necessary to swim under 
water ! The Presbyterian must divest himself of 
his load of confession-of-faith ! All must abandon 
their cargoes of details ! They are non-essential 
and unimportant. 

In their stead, let all Christians follow the plain 
teachings of Jesus! Let us take Him as our 
Leader until we can find a better one ! Let us 
be governed by His example and by the reason 
that has been placed within us by His Father and 
Our Father ! 



NOTE. 

This book has been printed chiefly for distribu- 
tion among my friends and acquaintances. 

Should any of them, however, require additional 
copies, they can be obtained from the publisher, 
Wilbur B. Ketcham, 7 & 9 West Eighteenth 
Street, New York, at $1.00 a copy, or $7.00 a 
dozen. 

If any profit should result from those that are 
thus sold, such profit will go for the benefit of the 
Charlton Industrial Farm School, a brief account 
of which will be found on a few succeeding pages. 

J. S. H. 
164 





s<5 



THE CHARLTON INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 

Charlton is a township and village of Saratoga 
County, N. Y, Some two miles from the village, 
and about seven or eight miles from Schenectady, 
is located the Farm School referred to on the 
preceding page. 

It was founded some four years ago, by five 
residents of the town, assisted by some of their 
old schoolmates who had become residents of 
New York City. 

The best farm in the township, comprising two 
hundred acres of excellent land, was purchased, 
together with stock, tools, and furniture. 

The object is to provide a home for wayward 
and homeless boys, who are just beginning a 
career of vice, taking them from the roads that 
lead toward crime, the prison, and the poorhouse, 
and giving them a good home, where they are . 
placed under the best influences, like those of a r\ 
farmer's family, receive a good common school 
education, are taught farming, and especially the 
raising and care of fruit trees, including planting, 
grafting, budding, trimming, and the care of fruit. 

Above all, the greatest pains is taken to impress 

upon them the value of character. In fact every- 

165 



l66 CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 

thing possible is done to turn them to the right 
paths, and finally make of them good and useful 
men. 

The officers at the farm are, a superintendent, a 
teacher, and a matron. 

The whole is under the control of a board of 
trustees, consisting of five prominent citizens of 
the town. Their term of office is five years. A 
new trustee is elected in January of each year. 
The board of election consists of the five trustees, 
the supervisor, and the justice of the peace of the 
township, seven in all, and this arrangement is to 
be continuous, under the charter from the State 
of New York. The institution is also under the 
State Board of Charities. 

There are at present twelve boys at the school, J 
all we could accommodate in the old Farm House. l\ 
During the past year, however, we have erected a 
new brick building, which is capable of accommo- 
dating thirty boys, besides the officers and farmer. 
We expect to increase our number of boys to 
thirty, as we can see our way to their maintenance 
and support. 

The new building with furniture cost about 
$22,ocK). It is very substantial and complete. 
Care has been taken to avoid giving it the appear- 
ance of a public institution. On the contrary, it 
looks like a great generous Farm House, one that 
our boys can, in after life, remember with feelings 
of affection. 



CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 167 

Should our income be sufficient, we could easily 
accommodate ten more boys in the old Farm 
House, making forty in all. 

We have also the beginning of an endowment 
fund which we shall endeavor to increase to an 
amount that will make the school absolutely per- 
manent. To this fund subscriptions are invited. 

Dr. James T. Sweetman, of Charlton, Saratoga 
County, N. Y., is Secretary and Treasurer, and to 
him all communications should be addressed. 



NOV 14 1900 



